GIFT  OF 
Prof .    ii •  J  Ji ickson . 


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MAIN  LIBRAHY-AGRVCULTURC  DEIPT 


cyi<r^a^-^' 


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TEN  ACRES  Enough 


A  PRACTICAL  EXPERIENCE 


HOW  A  VERY  SMALL  FARM   MAY   BE 
MADE  TO  KEEP  A  VERY  LARGE  FAMILY 

WITH   INTRODUCTION    BY 

ISAAC  PHILLIPS  ROBERTS 

EMERITUS   PROFESSOR   OF   AGRICULTURE,  LATE   DEAN   AND   DIRECTOR  OF 
THE  COLLEGE   OF   AGRICULTURE   OF  CORNELL  UNIVERSITY 

AUTHOR    OF 

"THE    FARMSTEAD,"     "THE    HORSE,"    "THE   FARMER'S 

BUSINESS    HANDBOOK,"   ETC. 


NEW  YORK 
CONSOLIDATED  RETAIL  BOOKSELLERS 

1905 


7 


MAIM  JLUMtAltY.AGfrK:ULTUM[E 


Copyrighted,  1905,  by 
CONSOLIDATED  RETAIL  BOOKSELLERS 


Published,  October,   1905. 
[Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America]. 


INTRODUCTION. 

What  Jethro  TuU  *  did  to  improve  tillage,  the 
author  of  "  Ten  Acres  Enough  "  did  to  prove  that 
intensified  agriculture  on  small  areas  could  be  made 
not  only  to  support  a  family,  but  to  yield  a  hand- 
some profit,  and  health,  freedom  and  happiness  as 
well.  It  has  taken  two  centuries  for  the  most  ad- 
vanced farmers  to  appreciate  Tull  and  his  teachings. 
It  has  taken  nearly  half  a  century  in  this  progres- 
sive age  to  appreciate  and  to  put  in  practice,  in  a 
feeble  way,  the  fundamental  principles  which  under- 
lie all  our  dealings  with  Mother  Earth  as  set  forth 
in  this  modest  volume  of  two  hundred  pages. 

If  one  totally  ignorant  of  the  principles  and  prac- 
tices of  the  various  operations  necessary  to  bring  to 
perfection  the  many  plants  with  which  Agriculture 
has  to  do,  were  limited  to  two  publications,  I  would 
advise  him  to  purchase  "  Horse- Hoeing  Husbandry  " 
and  "  Ten  Acres  Enough." 

"  The  mistaken  ambition  for  owning  twice  (often 
ten  times)  as  much  land  as  one  can  thoroughly 
manure  or  profitably  cultivate,  is  the  great  agricul- 
tural sin  of  this  country,"  says  the  author.  In 
California  where  this  is  being  written,  this  mistaken 

*  Born  1680,  died  1740. 

3 


526G8S 


4:  INTRODUCTION. 

ambition  prevails  to  an  alarming  extent.  Too  often, 
farmers  have  become  soil  robbers.  This  state  ap- 
pears to  excel  all  others  in  its  haste  to  filch  from  the 
land  every  valuable  timber  tree,  every  pound  of  ni- 
trogen, every  vestige  of  humus  that  can  be  extracted 
at  a  present  profit  however  small,  with  apparently  no 
thought  of  the  future  productivity  of  the  land,  the 
future  welfare  of  the  farmer,  or  the  permanent  pros- 
Derity  of  the  community. 

I  have  made  a  careful  study  of  the  conditions  of 
agriculture  in  the  Santa  Clara,  San  Jose  and  Sacra- 
mento Valleys,  and  I  am  irresistibly  led  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  great  ranches  must  be  broken  up 
into  small  holdings  before  permanent  prosperity  can 
come  to  the  farmers  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  On  a  re- 
cent visit  to  a  ranch  of  several  thousand  acres, 
where  things  appeared  prosperous  and  the  cattle 
looked  well  bred  and  well  fed,  I  could  not  refrain 
from  asking  the  impolite  question,  "  Does  it  pay  ?  " 
The  reply  was :  "  We  have  been  here  ten  years ; 
have  put  in  —  dollars,  gotten  up  at  two  in  the  morn- 
ing to  get  the  milk  delivery  wagon  started  in  time, 
have  four  hundred  head  of  cattle  and  thirty  horses, 
ind  if  I  should  sell  out  to-day,  I  would  not  have  a 
iollar  clear  profit." 

A  few  days  after,  I  called  on  my  college  graduate 
i:riend.  He  has  just  ten  acres  all  in  fruit — peaches, 
apricots  and  prunes — all  of  which  he  will  dry,  as 
transportation  is  uncertain  and  expensive  and  the 
eastern  market  for  undried  fruit  precarious.  Again 
i  asked,  "  Does  it  pay  ?  "    He  replied ;  "  Well,  we 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

have  three  children,  my  wife  and  I  have  worked 
hard  except  in  the  six  weeks  harvesting  time,  we 
have  a  comfortable  living,  some  spare  time,  and  on 
an  average  secure  a  profit  of  about  three  hundred  a 
year  after  allowing  a  modest  interest  on  the  invest- 
ment. The  orchard  is  not  yet  in  full  bearing  and 
we  should  do  somewhat  better  in  the  future  and 
vastly  better  when  the  well  is  bored  and  a  pump 
provided  for  irrigating  once  or  twice  yearly."  In 
this  locality,  land  suitable  for  fruit  is  held  at  one 
hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  dollars  per  acre. 
Where  the  planted  orchard  has  been  in  bearing  for 
two  or  three  years,  that  is,  produces  two-thirds  of 
a  crop,  it  sells  at  eight  to  nine  hundred  dollars  per 
acre.  If  well  and  pump  are  added,  the  value  is  in- 
creased to  one  thousand  or  eleven  hundred  dollars 
per  acre. 

These  two  cases  are  typical,  not  exceptional. 
After  becoming  acquainted  with  the  inner  life  of  the 
owners  of  these  holdings — for  there  are  really  only 
two  kinds,  small  fruit  and  vegetable  holdings,  and 
large  cattle,  sheep,  grain  and  hay  ranches — one  does 
not  hesitate  to  choose  between  them. 

It  all  amounts  to  this  :  No  one  should  control 
more  arable  land  than  he  can  maintain  in  a  high 
state  of  productivity,  the  four  great  factors  of  which 
are,  good  seed,  suitable  moisture,  abundant  available 
plant  food,  and  rational  tillage.  In  a  large  majority 
of  cases  where  failure,  or  partial  failure  of  an  abun- 
dant crop  is  observed  the  meagre  results  are  due  to 
a  partial  lack  of  one  of  these  fundamentals.     The 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

vicissitudes  of  weather  have  little  effect,  if  varieties 
and  species  of  plants  adapted  to  the  locality  are 
selected,  if  the  plants  are  neither  hungry  nor  thirsty, 
and  if  they  are  comfortably  grounded  in  old  Mother 
Earth. 

Then  the  joy  of  seeing  happy  plants  and  animals 
grow  strong  and  produce  "  some  fifty,  some  an  hun- 
dred fold  !  " — "  Twere  worth  ten  years  of  city  life, 
one  look  at  their  array ! " 

Again  and  again  the  author  of  "  Ten  Acres 
Enough  "  recounts  the  happiness  of  observing  Na- 
ture's modes  of  action  at  first  hand,  the  pleasure  of 
discovering  now  one,  now  another  secret  of  soil  or 
plant.  How  he  revels  in  plain  food  and  peaceful 
slumber  after  a  day  of  intelligent  effort  in  God's 
first  Temple  under  the  open  sky!  He  consulted 
with  his  neighbors  often.  Sometimes  he  "  went  by 
the  field  of  the  slothful  and  by  the  vineyard  of  the 
man  void  of  understanding,"  and,  lo !  he  "  saw  it 
was  all  overgrown  with  thorns,  and  nettles  had 
covered  the  face  thereof  and  the  stone  wall  thereof 
was  broken  down."  Then  "  he  saw  and  considered 
it  well  and  looked  upon  it  and  received  instruction." 

It  did  not  take  long  for  him  to  discover  that  sloth- 
fulness  and  ignorance  were  the  cause  of  the  untidy 
condition  and  meagre  results  of  these  plantations 
which  were  duplicates  of  the  one  described  by  Solo- 
mon. So  he  piled  his  table  high  with  the  best  agri- 
cultural literature  and  spent  his  evenings  at  home 
reading  it.  For  years  he  and  his  wife  and  daughter 
were  close  students.     When  it  could  no  longer  be 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

said  that  they  were  ignorant ;  they  all  put  on  plain 
clothes  and  worked — worked  as  only  an  intelligent 
servant  works  for  a  kind  master — and  the  Master 
gave  ample  reward  when  the  harvest  time  came. 
Reader,  go  and  do  likewise ! 

ISAAC  PHILLIPS  ROBERTS. 

Emeritus  Professor  of  Agriculture,  Late  Dean 
and  Director  of  the  College  of  Agriculture,  of 
Cornell  University  ;  Author  of  "  The  Farm- 
stead," **The  Farmer's  Business  Handbook," 
etc. 


PREFACE. 


The  man  who  feeds  his  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills 
may  possibly  see  the  title  of  this  little  volume  pa- 
raded through  the  newspapers  ;  but  the  chances  are 
that  he  will  never  think  it  worth  while  to  look  into 
the  volume  itself.  The  owner  of  a  hundred  acres 
will  scarcely  step  out  of  his  way  to  purchase  or  to 
borrow  it,  while  the  lord  of  every  smaller  farm  will 
be  sure  it  is  not  intended  for  him.  Few  persons  be- 
longing to  these  several  classes  have  been  educated 
to  believe  Ten  Acres  Enough.  Born  to  greater  am- 
bition, they  have  aimed  higher  and  grasped  at  more, 
sometimes  wisely,  sometimes  not.  Many  of  these 
are  now  owning  or  cultivating  more  land  than  their 
heads  or  purses  enable  them  to  manage  properly. 
Had  their  ambition  been  moderate,  and  their  ideas 
more  practical,  their  labor  would  be  better  rewarded, 
and  this  book,  without  doubt,  would  have  found  more 
readers. 

The  mistaken  ambition  for  owning  twice  as  much 
land  as  one  can  thoroughly  manure  or  profitably 
cultivate,  is  the  great  agricultural  sin  of  this  country. 
Those  who  commit  it,  by  beginning  wrong,  too  fre- 

9 


10  PREFACE. 

quently  continue  wrong.  Owning  many  acres  is 
the  sole  idea.  High  cultivation  of  a  small  tract,  is 
one  of  which  they  have  little  knowledge.  Too  many 
in  these  several  classes  think  they  know  enough. 
They  measure  a  man's  knowledge  by  the  number  of 
his  acres.  Hence,  in  their  eyes  the  owner  of  a  plot 
so  humble  as  mine  must  know  so  little  as  to  be  un- 
able to  teach  them  anything  new. 

Happily,  it  is  not  for  these  that  I  write,  and  hence 
it  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  them  to  become 
readers.  I  write  more  particularly  for  those  who 
have  not  been  brought  up  as  farmers — for  that  nu- 
merous body  of  patient  toilers  in  city,  town,  and 
village,  who,  like  myself,  have  struggled  on  from  year 
to  year,  anxious  to  break  away  from  the  bondage  of 
the  desk,  the  counter,  or  the  workshop,  to  realize  in 
the  country  even  a  moderate  income,  so  that  it  be  a 
sure  one.  Many  such  are  constantly  looking  round 
in  this  direction  for  something  which,  with  less  men- 
tal toil  and  anxiety,  will  provide  a  maintenance  for 
a  growing  family,  and  afford  a  refuge  for  advancing 
age — some  safe  and  quiet  harbor,  sheltered  from  the 
constantly  recurring  monetary  and  political  convul- 
sions which  in  this  country  so  suddenly  reduce  men 
to  poverty.  But  these  inquirers  find  no  experienced 
pioneers  to  lead  the  way,  and  they  turn  back  upon 
themselves,  too  fearful  to  go  forward  alone.  Books 
of  personal  experience  like  this  are  rare.  This  is 
written  for  the  information  of  the  class  referred  to, 
for  men  not  only  willing,  but  anxious  to  learn.  Once 
in  the  same  predicament  myself,  I  know  their  long- 


PREFACE.  11 

ings,  their  deficiencies,  and  the  steps  they  ought  to 
take.  Hence,  in  seeking  to  make  myself  fully  un- 
derstood, some  may  think  that  I  have  been  unneces- 
sarily minute.  But  in  setting  forth  my  own  crudi- 
ties, I  do  but  save  others  from  repeating  them.  Yet 
with  all  this  amplification,  my  little  contribution  will 
occasion  no  crowding  even  upon  a  book-shelf  which 
may  be  already  filled. 

I  am  too  new  a  farmer  to  be  the  originator  of  all 
the  ideas  which  are  here  set  forth.  Some,  which 
seemed  to  be  appropriate  to  the  topic  in  hand,  have 
been  incorporated  with  the  argument  as  it  progressed ; 
while  in  some  instances,  even  the  language  of  writers, 
whose  names  were  unknown  to  me,  has  also  been 
adopted. 


CONTENTS. 


PlOB 

Chapter  I.—City  Experiences— ModerateExpectations    15 

Chapter  II.— Practical  Views— Safety  of  Investments 

in  Land 23 

Chapter  III.— Resolved  to  go— Escape  from  Business 

—Choosing  a  Location 29 

Chapter  IV.— Buying  a  Farm— Anxiety  to  sell— Forced 

to  quit 36 

Chapter  V. — Making  a  Purchase — First  Impressions. .    44 

Chapter  VI. — Planting  a  Peach-orchard — How  to  pre- 
serve Peach-trees 49 

Chapter  VII. — Planting  Raspberries  and  Strawberries 

— Tricks  of  the  Nursey 61 

Chapter  VIII.— Blackberries— A    Remarkable    Coin- 
cidence      69 

Chapter  IX.— The    Garden— Female   Management- 
Comforts  and  Profits 79 

Chapter  X.— Cheated  in  a  Cow— A  Good  and  a  Bad 

One— The  Saint  of  the  Barnyard 88 

Chapter  XI.— A  Cloud    of    Weeds— Great    Sales  of 

Plants 98 

Chapter  XII.— Pigs  and  Poultry— Luck  and  111  Luck.  Ill 

Chapter  XIII.— City  and  Country  Life  contrasted 124 

13 


14:  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter  XIV.— Two  Acres  in  Truck— Revolution  in 

Agriculture 132 

Chapter  XV. — Birds,  and  the  Services  they  Render  . .  146 

Chapter  XVI.— Close  of  my  First  Year— Its  Loss  and 

Gain 156 

Chapter  XVII.— My    Second    Year- Trenching    the 

Garden — Strawberry  Profits 163 

Chapter  XVIII.— Raspberries— The  Lawtons 183 

Chapter  XIX.— Liquid  Manures— Illustration 193 

Chapter  XX.— My  Third  Year— Liquid  Manure- 
Three  Years'  Results    204 

Chapter    XXI.— A     Barnyard     Manufactory— Land 

Enough— Faith  in  Manure 216 

Chapter  XXII.— Profits  of  Fruit-growing— The  Trade 

in  Berries 228 

Chapter  XXIII. — Gentleman-farming — Establishing  a 

Home ...247 

Chapter    XXIV.— Unsuccessful  Men — Rebellion  not 

Ruinous  to  Northern  Agriculture. . . 255 

Chapter  XXV.— Where  to  Locate— East  or  West  ..  .266 


TEK  ACEES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CITY    EXPERIENCES MODERATE    EXPECTATIONS. 

My  life,  up  to  the  age  of  forty,  had  been  spent  in 
my  native  city  of  Philadelphia.  Like  thousands  of 
others  before  me,  I  began  the  world  without  a  dollar, 
and  with  a  very  few  friends  in  a  condition  to  assist 
me.  Having  saved  a  few  hundred  dollars  by  dint  of 
close  application  to  business,  and  avoiding  taverns, 
oyster-houses,  theatres,  and  fashionable  tailors,  I 
married  and  went  into  business  the  same  year.  These 
two  contemporaneous  drafts  upon  my  little  capital 
proving  heavier  than  I  expected,  they  soon  used  it 
up,  leaving  me  thereafter  greatly  straitened  for 
means.  It  is  true  my  business  kept  me,  but  as  it 
was  constantly  expanding,  and  was  of  such  a  nature 
that  a  large  proportion  of  my  annual  gain  was  neces- 
sarily invested  in  tools,  fixtures,  and  machinery,  I 
was  nearly  always  short  of  ready  cash  to  carry  on 
my  operations  with  comfort.  At  certain  times,  also, 
it  ceased  to  be  profitable.  The  crisis  of  1837  nearly 
ruined  me,  and  I  was  kept  struggling  along  during 
the  five  succeeding  years  of  hard  times,  until  the  re- 

15 


16  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

vival  of  1842  came  round.  Previous  to  this  crisis, 
necessity  had  driven  me  to  the  banks  for  discounts, 
one  of  the  sore  evils  of  doing  business  upon  insuffi- 
cient capital.  As  is  always  the  case  with  these  in- 
stitutions, they  compelled  me  to  return  the  borrowed 
money  at  the  very  time  it  was  least  convenient  for 
me  to  do  so — they  needed  it  as  urgently  as  myself. 
But  to  refund  them  I  was  compelled  to  borrow  else- 
where, and  that  too  at  excessive  rates  of  interest, 
thus  increasing  the  burden  while  laboring  to  shake 
it  off. 

Thousands  have  gone  through  the  same  unhappy 
experience,  and  been  crushed  by  the  load.  Such  can 
anticipate  my  trials  and  privations.  Yet  I  was  not 
insolvent.  My  property  had  cost  me  far  more  than 
I  owed,  yet  if  offered  for  sale  at  a  time  when  the 
whole  community  seemed  to  want  money  only,  no 
one  could  have  been  found  to  give  cost.  I  could  not 
use  it  as  the  basis  of  a  loan,  neither  could  I  part  with 
it  without  abandoning  my  business.  Hence  I  strug- 
gled on  through  that  exhausting  crisis,  haunted  by 
perpetual  fears  of  being  dishonored  at  bank, — lying 
down  at  night,  not  to  peaceful  slumber,  but  to  dream 
of  fresh  expedients  to  preserve  my  credit  for  to-mor- 
row. I  have  sometimes  thought  that  the  pecuniary 
cares  of  that  struggle  were  severe  enough  to  have 
shortened  my  life,  had  they  been  much  longer  pro- 
tracted. 

Besides  the  mental  anxieties  they  occasioned,  they 
compelled  a  pinching  economy  in  my  family.  But 
in  this  latter  effort  I  discovered  my  wife  to  be  a 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  I7 

jewel  of  priceless  value,  coming  up  heroically  to  the 
task,  and  relieving  me  of  a  world  of  care.  Without 
her  aid,  her  skill,  her  management,  her  uncomplain- 
ing cheerfulness,  her  sympathy  in  struggles  so  inade- 
quately rewarded  as  mine  were,  I  should  have  sunk 
into  utter  bankruptcy.  Her  economy  was  not  the 
mean,  penny- wise,  pound  foolish  policy  which  many 
mistake  for  true  economy.  It  was  the  art  of  calcu- 
lation joined  to  the  habit  of  order,  and  the  power  of 
proportioning  our  wishes  to  the  means  of  gratifying 
them.  The  little  pilfering  temper  of  a  wife  is  despi- 
cable and  odious  to  every  man  of  sense ;  but  there  is 
a  judicious,  graceful  economy,  which  has  no  con- 
nection with  an  avaricious  temper,  and  which,  as  it  de- 
pends upon  the  understanding,  can  be  expected  only 
from  cultivated  minds.  Women  who  have  been  well 
educated,  far  from  despising  domestic  duties,  will 
hold  them  in  high  respect,  because  they  will  see  that 
the  whole  happiness  of  life  is  made  up  of  the  happi- 
ness of  each  particular  day  and  hour,  and  that  much 
of  the  enjoyment  of  these  must  depend  upon  the 
punctual  practice  of  virtues  which  are  more  valuable 
than  splendid. 

If  I  survived  that  crisis,  it  was  owing  to  my  wife's 
admirable  management  of  my  household  expenses. 
She  saw  that  our  embarrassment  was  due  to  no  im- 
prudence or  neglect  of  mme.  She  thus  consented  to 
severe  privations,  uttering  no  complaint,  hinting  no 
reproach,  never  disheartened,  and  so  rarely  out  of 
humor  that  she  never  failed  to  welcome  my  return 
with  a  smile. 
2 


18  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

But  in  this  country  one  convulsion  follows  another 
with  disheartening  frequency.  I  lived  through  that 
of  1837,  paid  my  debts,  and  had  managed  to  save 
some  money.  My  wife's  system  of  economy  had 
been  so  long  adhered  to,  that  in  the  end  it  became  to 
some  extent  habitual  to  her,  and  she  still  continued 
to  practice  great  frugality.  I  became  insensibly  ac- 
customed to  it  myself.  Children  were  multiplying 
around  us,  and  we  thought  the  skies  had  brightened 
for  all  future  time.  When  in  difficulty,  we  had  often 
debated  the  propriety  of  quitting  the  city  and  its 
terrible  business  trials,  and  settling  on  a  few  acres 
in  the  country,  where  we  could  raise  our  own  food, 
and  spend  the  remainder  of  our  days  in  cultivating 
ground  which  would  be  sure  to  yield  us  at  least  a  re- 
spectable subsistence.  We  had  no  longing  for  exces- 
sive wealth  :  a  mere  competency,  though  earned  by 
daily  toil,  so  that  it  was  reasonably  sure,  and  free 
from  the  drag  of  continued  indebtedness  to  others, 
was  all  we  coveted. 

I  had  always  loved  the  country,  but  my  wife  pre- 
ferred the  city.  I  could  take  no  step  but  such  as 
would  be  likely  to  promote  her  happiness.  So  long 
as  times  continued  fair,  we  ceased  to  canvass  the  pro- 
priety of  a  removal.  We  had  children  to  educate, 
and  to  her  the  city  seemed  the  best  and  most  con- 
venient place  for  qualifying  them  for  future  useful- 
ness. Then,  most  of  our  relations  resided  near  us. 
Our  habits  were  eminently  social.  We  had  made 
numerous  friends,  and  among  our  neighbors  there 
had  turned  up  many  valuable   families.     We  felt 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  19 

even  the  thought  of  breaking  away  from  all  these 
cordial  ties  to  be  a  trying  one.  But  the  refuge  of  a 
removal  to  the  country  had  taken  strong  hold  of  my 
mind. 

Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  I  was  born  with  a  pas- 
sion for  living  on  a  farm.  It  was  fixed  and  strength- 
ened by  my  long  experience  of  the  business  vicissi- 
tudes of  city  life.  For  many  years  I  had  been  a 
constant  subscriber  for  several  agricultural  journals, 
whose  contents  I  read  as  carefully  as  I  did  those  of 
the  daily  papers.  My  wife  also,  being  a  great  reader, 
came  in  time  to  study  them  almost  as  attentively. 
Everything  I  saw  in  them  only  tended  to  confirm  my 
longing  for  the  country,  while  they  gave  definite 
views  of  what  kind  of  farming  I  was  fit  for.  In  fact 
they  educated  me  for  the  position  before  I  assumed 
it.  I  am  sure  they  exercised  a  powerful  influence  in 
removing  most  of  my  wife's  objections  to  living  in 
the  country.  I  studied  their  contents  as  carefully  as 
did  the  writers  who  prepared  them.  I  watched  the 
reports  of  crops,  of  experiments,  and  of  profits.  The 
leading  idea  in  my  mind  was  this — that  a  man  of 
ordinary  industry  and  intelligence,  by  choosing  a 
proper  location  within  hourly  reach  of  a  great  city 
market,  could  so  cultivate  a  few  acres  as  to  insure  a 
maintenance  for  his  family,  free  from  the  ruinous 
vibrations  of  trade  or  commerce  in  the  metropolis. 
All  my  reading  served  to  convince  me  of  its  sound- 
ness. I  did  not  assume  that  he  could  get  rich  on  the 
few  acres  which  I  ever  expected  to  own ;  but  I  felt 
assured  that  he  could  place  himself  above  want.    I 


20  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

knew  that  his  peace  of  mind  would  be  sure.  With 
me  this  was  dearer  than  all.  My  reading  had  sat- 
isfied me  that  such  a  man  would  find  Ten  Acres 
Enough,  and  these  I  could  certainly  command. 

As  I  did  not  contemplate  undertaking  the  manage- 
ment of  a  large  grain  farm,  so  my  studies  did  not 
run  in  that  direction.  Yet  I  read  everything  that 
came  before  me  in  relation  to  such,  and  not  without 
profit.  But  I  graduated  my  views  to  my  means,  and 
so  noted  with  the  utmost  care  the  experiences  of 
the  small  cultivators  who  farmed  five  to  ten  acres 
thoroughly.  I  noted  their  failures  as  watchfully  as 
their  successes,  knowing  that  the  former  were  to  be 
avoided,  as  the  latter  were  to  be  imitated.  As  op- 
portunity offered,  I  made  repeated  excursions,  year 
after  year,  in  every  direction  around  Philadelphia, 
visiting  the  small  farmers  or  truckers  who  supplied 
the  city  market  with  fruit  and  vegetables,  examin- 
ing, inquiring,  and  treasuring  up  all  that  I  saw 
and  heard.  The  fund  of  knowledge  thus  acquired 
was  not  only  prodigious,  but  it  has  been  of  lasting 
value  to  me  in  my  subsequent  operations.  I  found 
multitudes  of  truckers  who  were  raising  large  fam- 
ilies on  five  acres  of  ground,  while  others,  owning 
only  thirty  acres,  had  become  rich. 

On  most  of  these  numerous  excursions  I  was  care- 
ful to  have  my  wife  with  me.  I  wanted  her  to  see 
and  hear  for  herself,  and  by  convincing  her  judg- 
ment, to  overcome  her  evidently  diminishing  reluc- 
tance to  leaving  the  city.  My  uniform  consideration 
for  her  comfort  at  last  secured  the  object  I  had  in 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  21 

view.  She  saw  so  many  homes  in  which  a  quiet 
abundance  was  found,  so  many  contented  men  and 
women,  so  many  robust  and  bouncing  children,  that 
long  before  I  was  ready  to  leave  the  city,  she  was 
quite  impatient  to  be  gone. 


22  TEN  AGUES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PEACTICAL  VIEWS — SAFETY    OF   INVESTMENTS  IN 
LAND. 

There  was  not  a  particle  of  romance  in  my  aspi- 
rations for  a  farm,  neither  had  I  formed  a  single 
visionary  theory  which  was  there  to  be  tested.  My 
notions  were  all  sober  and  prosaic.  I  had  struggled 
all  my  life  for  dollars,  because  abundance  of  them 
produces  pecuniary  comfort :  and  the  change  to 
country  life  was  to  be,  in  reality,  a  mere  continua- 
tion of  the  struggle,  but  lightened  by  the  assurance 
that  if  the  dollars  thus  to  be  acquired  were  fewer  in 
number,  the  certainty  of  earning  enough  of  them 
was  likely  to  be  greater.  Crops  might  fail  under 
skies  at  one  time  too  watery,  at  another  too  brassy, 
but  no  such  disaster  could  equal  those  to  which 
commercial  pursuits  are  uninterruptedly  exposed. 
They  have  brassy  skies  above  them  as  well  as  farm- 
ers. For  nearly  twenty  years  I  had  been  ham- 
pered with  having  notes  of  my  own  or  of  other  par- 
ties to  pay ;  but  of  all  the  farmers  I  had  visited 
only  one  had  ever  given  a  note,  and  he  had  made  a 
vow  never  to  give  another.  My  wife  was  shrewd 
enough  to  observe  and  remark  on  this  fact  at  the 
time,  it  was  so  different  from  my  own  experience. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  23 

She  admitted  there  must  be  some  satisfaction  in 
carrying  on  a  business  which  did  not  require  the 
giving  of  notes. 

Looking  at  the  matter  of  removal  to  the  country 
in  a  practical  light,  I  found  that  in  the  city  I  was 
paying  three  hundred  dollars  per  annum  rent  for  a 
dwelling-house.  It  was  the  interest  of  five  thou- 
sand dollars ;  yet  it  afforded  nothing  but  a  shelter 
for  my  family.  I  might  continue  to  pay  that  rent  for 
fifty  years,  without,  at  the  end  of  that  time,  having 
acquired  the  ownership  of  either  a  stone  upon  the 
chimney,  or  a  shingle  in  the  roof.  If  the  house  rose 
in  value,  the  rise  would  be  to  the  owner's  benefit, 
not  to  mine.  It  would  really  be  injurious  to  me, 
as  the  rise  would  lead  him  to  demand  an  increase  of 
his  rent.  But  put  the  value  of  the  house  into  a 
farm,  or  even  the  half  of  it — the  farm  would  have  a 
dwelling-house  upon  it,  in  which  my  family  would 
find  as  good  a  shelter,  while  the  land,  if  cultivated  as 
industriously  as  I  had  always  cultivated  business, 
would  belie  the  flood  of  evidence  I  had  been  study- 
ing for  many  years,  if  it  failed  to  yield  to  my  efforts 
the  returns  which  it  was  manifestly  returning  to 
others.  We  could  live  contentedly  on  a  thousand 
dollars  a  year,  and  here  we  should  have  no  landlord 
to  pay.  My  wife,  in  pinching  times,  has  financiered 
us  through  the  year  on  several  hundred  less.  I  con- 
fess to  having  lived  as  well  on  the  diminished 
rations  as  I  wanted  to.  Indeed,  until  one  tries  it 
for  himself,  it  is  incredible  what  dignity  there  is  in 
an  old  hat,  what  virtue  in  a  time-worn  coat,  and 


24  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

how  savory  the  dinner-table  can  be  made  without 
sirloin  steaks  or  cranberry  tarts. 

Thus,  let  it  be  remembered,  my  views  and  aspira- 
tions had  no  tinge  of  extravagance.  My  rule  was 
moderation.  The  tortures  of  a  city  struggle  without 
capital,  had  sobered  me  down  to  being  contented 
with  a  bare  competency.  I  might  fail  in  some  par- 
ticulars at  the  outset,  from  ignorance,  but  I  was  in 
the  prime  of  life,  strong,  active,  industrious,  and 
tractable,  and  what  I  did  not  know  I  could  soon 
learn  from  others,  for  farmers  have  no  secrets. 
Then  I  had  seen  too  much  of  the  uncertainty  of 
banks  and  stocks,  and  ledger  accounts,  and  prom- 
issory notes,  to  be  willing  to  invest  anything  in 
either  as  a  permanency.  At  best  they  are  fluctuat- 
ing and  uncertain,  up  to-day  and  down  to-morrow. 
My  great  preference  had  always  been  for  land. 

In  looking  around  among  my  wide  circle  of  city 
acquaintances,  especially  among  the  older  families, 
I  could  not  fail  to  notice  that  most  of  them  had 
grown  rich  by  the  ownership  of  land.  More  than 
once  had  I  seen  the  values  of  all  city  property,  im- 
proved and  unimproved,  apparently  disappear ; — 
lots  without  purchasers,  and  houses  without  tenants, 
the  community  so  poor  and  panic-stricken  that  real 
estate  became  the  merest  drug.  Yesterday  the  col- 
lapse was  caused  by  the  destruction  of  the  National 
Bank ;  to-day  it  is  the  Tariff.  Sheriffs  played  havoc 
with  houses  and  lands  incumbered  by  mortgages, 
and  lawyers  fattened  on  the  rich  harvest  of  fees 
inaugurated  by  a  Bankrupt  Law.     But  those  who, 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  25 

undismayed  by  the  wreck  around  them,  courageously 
held  on  to  land,  came  through  in  safety.  The 
storm,  having  run  its  course  and  exhausted  its  wrath, 
gave  place  to  skies  commercially  serene,  and  real 
estate  swung  back  with  an  irrepressible  momentum 
to  its  former  value,  only  to  keep  on  advancing  to 
one  even  greater. 

I  became  convinced  that  safety  lay  in  the  owner- 
ship of  land.  In  all  my  inquiries  both  before  leav- 
ing the  city,  as  well  as  since,  I  rarely  heard  of  a 
farmer  becoming  insolvent.  When  I  did,  and  was 
careful  to  ascertain  the  cause,  it  turned  out  that  he 
had  either  begun  in  debt,  and  was  thus  hampered 
at  the  beginning,  or  had  made  bad  bargains  in  spec- 
ulations outside  of  his  calling,  or  wasted  his  means 
in  riotous  living,  or  had  in  some  way  utterly  neg- 
lected his  business.  If  not  made  rich  by  heavy 
crops,  I  could  find  none  who  had  been  made  poor 
by  bad  ones. 

The  reader  may  look  back  over  every  monetary 
convulsion  he  may  be  able  to  remember,  and  he  will 
find  that  in  all  of  them  the  agricultural  community 
came  through  with  less  disaster  than  any  other  in- 
terest. Wheat  grows  and  corn  ripens  though  all 
the  banks  in  the  world  may  break,  for  seed-time  and 
harvest  is  one  of  the  divine  promises  to  man,  never 
to  be  broken,  because  of  its  divine  origin.  They 
grew  and  ripened  before  banks  were  invented,  and 
will  continue  to  do  so  when  banks  and  railroad 
bonds  shall  have  become  obsolete. 

Moreover,  the  earthly  fund  for  whose  acquisition 


26  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

we  are  all  striving,  we  naturally  desire  to  make  a 
permanent  one.  As  we  have  worked  for  it,  so  we 
trust  that  it  will  work  for  us  and  our  children.  Its 
value,  whatever  that  may  be,  depends  on  its  perpe- 
tuity— the  continuance  of  its  existence.  A  man 
seeks  to  earn  what  will  support  and  serve  not  only 
himself,  but  his  posterity.  He  would  naturally  de- 
sire to  have  the  estate  descend  to  children  and 
grandchildren.  This  is  one  great  object  of  his  toil. 
What,  then,  is  the  safest  fund  in  which  to  invest, 
in  this  country  ?  What  is  the  only  fund  which  the 
experience  of  the  last  fifty  years  has  shown,  with 
very  few  exceptions,  would  be  absolutely  safe  as  a 
provision  for  heirs  ?  How  many  men,  within  that 
period,  assuming  to  act  as  trustees  for  estates,  have 
kept  the  trust  fund  invested  in  stocks,  and  when 
distributing  the  principal  among  the  heirs,  have 
found  that  most  of  it  had  vanished !  Under  cor- 
porate insolvency  it  had  melted  into  air.  No  pru- 
dent man,  accepting  such  a  trust,  and  guaranteeing 
its  integrity,  would  invest  the  fund  in  stocks. 

Our  country  is  filled  with  pecuniary  wrecks  from 
causes  like  this.  Thousands  trust  themselves  dur- 
ing their  lifetime,  to  manage  this  description  of  prop- 
erty, confident  of  their  caution  and  sagacity.  With 
close  watching  and  good  luck,  they  may  be  equal  to 
the  task  ;  but  the  question  still  occurs  as  to  the  prob- 
able duration  of  such  a  fund  in  families.  What  is 
its  safety  when  invested  in  the  current  stocks  of  the 
country  ?  and  next,  what  is  its  safety  in  the  hands 
of  heirs  ?    There  are  no  statistics  showing  the  prob- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  27 

able  continuance  of  estates  in  land  in  families,  and 
of  estates  composed  of  personal  property,  such  as 
stocks.  But  every  bank  cashier  will  testify  to  one 
remarkable  fact — that  an  heir  no  sooner  inherits 
stock  in  the  bank  than  the  first  thing  he  generally 
does  is  to  sell  and  transfer  it,  and  that  such  sale  is 
most  frequently  the  first  notice  given  of  the  holder's 
death. 

This  preference  for  investment  in  real  estate  will 
doubtless  be  objected  to  by  the  young  and  dashing 
business  man.  But  lands,  or  a  fund  secured  by  real 
estate,  is  unquestionably  not  only  the  highest  secu- 
rity, but  in  the  hands  of  heirs  it  is  the  only  one 
likely  to  survive  a  single  generation.  Hence  the 
wisdom  of  the  common  law,  which  neither  permits 
the  guardian  to  sell  the  lands  of  his  ward,  nor  even 
the  court,  in  its  discretion,  to  grant  authority  for 
their  sale,  except  upon  sufficient  grounds  shown,— 
as  a  necessity  for  raising  a  fund  for  the  support  and 
education  of  the  ward.  Even  a  lord  chancellor  can 
only  touch  so  sacred  a  fund  for  this  or  similar  rea- 
sons. The  common  law  is  wise  on  this  subject,  as 
on  most  others.  It  is  thus  the  experience  and  ob- 
servation of  mankind  that  such  a  fund  is  the  safest, 
and  hence  the  provisions  of  the  law. 

Those,  therefore,  who  acquire  personal  property^ 
acquire  only  what  will  last  about  a  generation,  longer 
or  shorter.  Such  property  is  quickly  converted  into 
money — it  perishes  and  is  gone.  But  land  is  hedged 
round  with  numerous  guards  which  protect  it  from 
hasty  spoliation.     It  is  not  so  easily  transferred ;  it 


28  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

is  not  so  secretly  transferred ;  the  law  enjoins  delib- 
erate formalities  before  it  can  be  alienated,  and  often 
the  consent  of  various  parties  is  necessary.  When 
all  other  guards  give  way,  early  memories  of  paren- 
tal attachment  to  these  ancestral  acres,  or  tender  rem- 
iniscences of  childhood,  will  come  in  to  stay  the  spo- 
liation of  the  homestead,  and  make  even  the  prodigal 
pause  before  giving  up  this  portion  of  his  inherit- 
ance. 

Throughout  Europe  a  passion  to  become  the  owner 
of  land  is  universal,  while  the  difficulty  of  gratifying 
it  is  infinitely  greater  than  with  us.  It  is  there  enor- 
mously dear ;  here  it  is  absurdly  cheap.  It  is  from 
this  universal  passion  that  the  vast  annual  immigra- 
tion to  this  country  derives  its  mighty  impulse.  As 
it  reaches  our  shores  it  spreads  itself  over  the  coun- 
try in  search  of  cheap  land.  Many  of  the  most 
flourishing  Western  States  have  been  built  up  by 
the  astonishing  influx  of  immigrants.  In  England, 
every  landowner  is  prompt  to  secure  every  freehold 
near  him,  be  it  large  or  small,  as  it  comes  into  mar- 
ket. Hence  the  number  of  freeholders  in  that  coun- 
try is  annually  diminishing  by  this  process  of  ab- 
sorption. This  European  passion  for  acquiring  land 
is  strangely  contrasted  with  the  American  passion 
for  parting  with  it. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  III. 

RESOLVED  TO  GO — ESCAPE  FROM  BUSINESS CHOOSING 

A  LOCATION. 

The  last  thirty  years  have  been  prolific  of  great 
pecuniary  convulsions.  I  need  not  recapitulate  them 
here,  as  too  many  of  them  are  yet  dark  spots  on  the 
memory  of  some  who  will  read  this.  Their  fre- 
quency, as  well  as  their  recurrence  at  shorter  inter- 
vals than  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  are  among 
their  most  remarkable  features,  baffling  the  calcula- 
tions of  older  heads,  and  confounding  those  of  young- 
er ones.  As  the  century  advanced,  these  convul- 
sions increased  in  number  and  violence.  The  whole 
business  horizon  seemed  full  of  coming  storms,  which 
burst  successively  with  desolating  severity,  not  only 
on  merchants  and  manufacturers,  but  on  others  who 
had  long  before  retired  from  business.  No  one 
could  foresee  this  state  of  things.  I  will  not  stop  to 
argue  causes,  but  confine  myself  to  facts  which  none 
will  care  to  contradict. 

These  disasters  made  beggars  of  thousands  in 
every  branch  of  business,  and  spread  discourage- 
ment over  every  community.  I  passed  through 
several  of  them,  striving  and  struggling,  and  op- 
pressed beyond  all  power  of  description.  How 
many  more  the  community  was  to  encounter  I  did 


30  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

not  know ;  but  I  conceived  it  the  part  of  prudence 
to  place  myself  beyond  the  circle  of  their  influence 
before  I  also  had  been  prostrated. 

In  spite  of  the  losses  thus  encountered,  I  had  been 
saving  something  annually  for  several  years,  when 
the  stricture  of  1854  came  on,  premonitory  of  the 
tremendous  crash  of  1857.  Most  unfortunately  for 
my  comfort,  that  stricture  seemed  to  fall  with  pe- 
culiar severity  on  a  class  of  dealers  largely  indebted 
to  me.  Many  of  them  became  embarrassed,  and 
failed  to  pay  me  at  the  time,  while  to  this  day  some 
of  them  are  still  my  debtors.  My  old  experiences 
of  raising  money  revived,  and  to  some  extent  I  was 
compelled  to  go  through  the  humiliations  of  similar 
periods.  But  the  stricture  was  of  brief  duration, 
and  I  closed  the  year  in  far  better  condition  than  I 
had  anticipated. 

But  the  trials  of  that  incipient  crisis  determined 
me  to  abandon  the  city.  I  found  that  by  realizing 
all  I  then  possessed,  I  could  command  means  enough 
to  purchase  ten  to  twenty  acres,  and  I  had  grown 
nervous  and  apprehensive  of  the  future.  While 
possessed  of  a  little,  I  resolved  to  make  that  little 
sure  by  investing  it  in  land.  I  had  worked  for  the 
landlord  long  enough.  My  excellent  wife  was  now 
entirely  willing  to  make  the  change,  and  our  six 
children  clapped  their  hands  with  joy  when  they 
heard  that  "father  was  going  to  live  in  the  country." 

I  had  long  determined  in  my  mind  what  sort  of 
farming  was  likely  to  prove  profitable  enough  to 
keep  us  with  comfort,  and  that  was  the  raising  of 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  31 

small  fruits  for  the  city  markets.  My  attention  had 
always  been  particularly  directed  to  the  berries. 
Some  strawberries  I  had  raised  in  my  city  garden 
with  prodigious  success.  My  friends,  when  they 
heard  of  my  project,  expressed  fears  that  the  mar- 
ket would  soon  be  glutted,  not  exactly  by  the  crops 
which  I  was  to  raise,  but  they  could  not  exactly  an- 
swer how.  They  confessed  that  they  were  extremely 
fond  of  berries,  and  that  at  no  time  in  the  season 
could  they  afford  to  eat  enough ;  a  confession  which 
seemed  to  explode  all  apprehension  of  the  market 
being  overstocked. 

But  my  wife  and  myself  had  both  examined  the 
hucksters  who  called  at  the  door  with  small  fruits, 
as  to  the  monstrous  prices  they  demanded,  and 
had  begged  them,  if  ever  a  glut  occurred,  that  they 
would  call  and  let  us  know.  But  none  had  ever 
called  with  such  information.  It  was  the  same 
thing  with  those  who  occupied  stalls  in  the  various 
city  markets.  They  rarely  had  a  surplus  left  un- 
sold, and  their  prices  were  always  high.  A  glut  of 
fruit  was  a  thing  almost  unknown  to  them.  It  was 
a  safe  presumption  that  the  market  would  not  be 
depressed  by  the  quantity  that  I  might  raise. 

But  here  let  me  say  something  by  way  of  paren- 
thesis, touching  this  common  idea  of  the  danger  of 
overstocking  the  fruit-market  of  the  great  cities.  It 
is  a  curious  fact  that  this  idea  is  entertained  only  by 
those  who  are  not  fruit-growers.  The  latter  never 
harbored  it.  Their  whole  experience  runs  the  other 
way,  they  know  it  to  be  a  gross  absurdity.     Yet, 


32  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

somehow,  the  question  of  a  glut  has  always  been  de- 
bated. Twenty  years  ago  the  nurserymen  were  ad- 
vised to  close  up  their  sales  and  abandon  the  busi- 
ness, as  they  would  soon  have  no  customers  for 
trees — everybody  was  supplied.  But  trees  have 
continued  to  be  planted  from  that  day  to  this,  and 
where  hundreds  were  sold  twenty  years  ago,  thou- 
sands are  disposed  of  now.  Old-established  nurseries 
have  been  trebled  in  size,  while  countless  new  ones 
have  been  planted.  The  nursery  business  has  grown 
to  a  magnitude  truly  gigantic,  because  the  market 
for  fruit  has  been  annually  growing  larger,  and  no 
business  enlarges  itself  unless  it  is  proved  to  be  profit- 
able. 

The  market  cannot  be  glutted  with  good  fruit. 
The  multiplication  of  mouths  to  consume  it  is  far 
more  rapid  than  the  increase  of  any  supply  that 
growers  can  effect.  Within  ten  years  the  masses 
have  had  a  slight  taste  of  choice  fruits,  and  but  little 
more.  Indulgence  has  only  served  to  whet  their 
appetites.  The  more  of  them  there  is  offered  in  the 
market,  the  more  will  there  be  consumed.  Every 
huckster  in  her  shamble,  every  vender  of  peanuts  in 
the  street,  will  testify  to  this.  The  modern  art  of 
semi-cookery  for  fruit,  and  of  preserving  it  in  cans 
and  jars,  has  made  sale  for  enormous  quantities  of 
those  choicer  kinds  which  return  the  highest  profit 
to  the  grower.  It  is  in  the  grain-market  that  panic 
often  rages,  but  never  in  the  fruit- market.  If  it 
ever  enters  the  latter,  the  struggle  is  to  obtain  the 
fruit,  not  to  get  rid  of  it. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  33 

The  proper  choice  of  a  location  was  now  to  be  the 
great  question  of  my  future  success.  I  had  deter- 
mined on  giving  my  attention  to  the  raising  of  the 
smaller  fruits  for  the  great  markets  of  New  York 
and  Philadelphia.  I  must  therefore  be  somewhere 
on  or  near  the  railroad  between  those  cities,  and  as 
near  as  possible  to  a  station.  The  soil  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, near  Philadelphia,  was  too  heavy  for  some  of 
the  lighter  fruits.  New  Jersey,  with  its  admirable 
sandy  loam  light,  warm,  and  of  surprisingly  easy 
tillage,  was  proverbially  adapted  for  the  growth  of 
all  market  produce,  whether  fruit  or  vegetable,  and 
was  at  the  same  time  a  week  or  two  earlier.  Land 
was  far  cheaper,  there  was  no  State  debt,  taxes  were 
merely  nominal,  and  an  acre  that  could  be  bought 
for  thirty  dollars  could  be  made  four  times  as  pro- 
ductive as  an  acre  of  the  best  wheat  land  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. Such  results  are  regularly  realized  by  hun- 
dreds of  Jerseymen  from  year  to  year. 

It  was  also  of  easy  access  from  the  city  for  manure- 
boats.  Every  town  within  the  range  of  my  wants 
was  well  supplied  with  churches,  schools,  and  stores, 
together  with  an  intelligent  and  moral  population. 
I  should  be  surrounded  by  desirable  neighbors,  while 
an  hour's  ride  by  steamboat  or  railroad  would  place 
me,  many  times  daily,  among  all  my  ancient  friends 
in  the  city.  We  should  by  no  means  become  her- 
mits. I  knew  the  country  so  well  from  my  numer- 
ous visits  among  the  fruit-growers,  when  in  search 
of  information,  as  to  anticipate  but  little  difficulty  in 
finding  the  proper  location. 


34  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

By  the  mere  accident  of  a  slight  revival  in  busi- 
ness in  the  early  part  of  1855,  a  party  came  along 
who  was  thus  induced  to  purchase  my  stock  and 
machinery.  Luckily,  he  was  able  to  pay  down  the 
whole  amount  in  cash.  I  received  what  I  considered 
at  the  time  an  excellent  price ;  but  when  I  came  to 
settle  up  my  accounts  and  pay  what  I  owed,  I  found, 
to  my  extreme  disappointment,  that  but  a  little  over 
two  thousand  dollars  remained. 

This  sum  was  the  net  gain  of  many  years  of  most 
laborious  toil.  Was  it  possible  for  farming  to  be  a 
worse  business  than  this  ?  I  had  made  ten  times  as 
much,  but  my  losses  had  been  terrible.  This,  with 
my  personal  credit,  was  all  the  surplus  I  had  saved. 
I  remember  now,  that  when  thus  discovering  myself 
to  be  worth  so  little,  I  half  regretted  having  given 
up  my  business  for  what  then  appeared  to  me  so  in- 
adequate a  sum.  When  selling,  I  was  jubilant  and 
thankful — when  settled  up,  I  was  full  of  regrets.  I 
ought  to  have  had  more.  So  difficult  is  it  for  the 
human  mind  to  be  satisfied  with  that  which  is  really 
best. 

But  I  little  knew  what  the  future  was  to  bring 
forth,  and  how  soon  my  want  of  thankfulness  was  to 
be  changed  into  the  profoundest  conviction  that  I 
had  providentially  escaped  from  total  ruin,  and  come 
out  comparatively  rich.  I  had  made  myself  snug 
upon  my  little  farm  when  the  tornado  of  1857  top- 
pled my  former  establishment  into  utter  ruin.  My 
successor  was  made  a  bankrupt,  and  his  business  was 
destroyed,  leaving  him  overwhelmed  with  debt.    He 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  85 

had  lost  all,  while  I  had  saved  all.  Had  I  not  sold 
when  I  did,  and  secured  what  the  sale  yielded  me 
I  too  should  have  been  among  the  wrecks  of  that 
terrific  visitation. 

But  I  heard  its  warning  in  the  quiet  of  my  little 
farm-house,  where  it  brought  me  neither  anxiety  nor 
loss.  My  position  was  like  that  of  one  sitting  peace- 
fully by  his  wintry  fireside,  gazing  on  the  thick 
storm  without,  and  listening  to  the  patter  of  the 
snow-flakes  as  the  tempest  drove  them  angrily 
against  the  window-pane,  while  all  within  was  calm 
and  genial.  Instead  of  regrets  for  what  I  had  failed 
to  grasp,  my  heart  overflowed  with  thankfulness  for 
the  comparative  abundance  that  remained  to  me. 
My  peace  of  mind  was  perfect.  The  unspeakable 
satisfaction  was  felt  of  being  out  of  business,  out  of 
debt,  out  of  danger — not  rich,  but  possessed  of 
enough.  The  thoughtful  reader  may  well  believe 
that  subsequent  disturbances,  rebellion,  war,  and 
even  a  more  wide-spread  bankruptcy — from  all 
which  my  humble  position  made  me  secure — have 
only  served  to  intensify  my  gratitude  to  that  Divine 
Providence  which  so  mercifully  shaped  my  ways. 


36  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

BUTING    A   FARM — A    LONG  SEARCH ANXIETY  TO 

SELL FORCED    TO    QUIT. 

As  already  stated,  I  had  in  round  numbers  a  clear 
two  thousand  dollars,  with  which  to  buy  and  stock  a 
farm,  and  keep  my  family  while  my  first  crops  were 
growing.  As  I  was  entirely  free  from  debt,  so  I  de- 
termined to  avoid  it  in  the  future.  Debt  had  been 
the  bitter  portion  of  my  life,  not  from  choice,  but  of 
necessity.  My  wife  took  strong  ground  in  support 
of  this  resolution — what  we  had  she  wanted  us  to 
keep.  I  had  too  long  been  aided  by  her  admira- 
ble counsel  to  reject  it  now.  She  had  a  singular 
longing  for  seeing  me  my  own  landlord.  Her  reso- 
lution was  a  powerful  strengthener  of  my  own  con- 
victions. 

Thus  resolved,  we  set  out  in  the  early  part  of 
March  to  seek  a  home.  I  was  particular  to  take  my 
wife  with  me — I  wanted  her  to  aid  in  choosing  it. 
She  was  to  occupy  it  as  well  as  myself.  She  knew 
exactly  what  we  wanted  as  regarded  the  dwelling- 
house, — the  land  department  she  left  entirely  to  my 
judgment.  I  was  determined  that  she  should  be  made 
comfortable  from  the  start,  not  only  because  she  de- 
served to  be  made  so,  but  to  make  sure  that  no  cause 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  37 

for  future  discontent  should  arise.  Indeed,  she  was 
really  the  best  judge  in  this  matter.  She  knew 
what  the  six  children  needed  ;  she  was  the  model  of 
a  housekeeper;  there  were  certain  little  conveni- 
ences indispensable  to  domestic  comfort  to  be  se- 
cured, of  which  she  knew  more  than  I  did,  while  her 
judgment  on  most  things  was  so  correct,  that  I  felt 
confident  if  she  were  fully  satisfied,  the  whole  enter- 
prise would  be  a  successful  one. 

I  loved  her  with  the  fervor  of  early  married  life — 
she  had  consented  to  my  plans — she  was  willing  to 
share  whatever  inconveniences  might  belong  to  our 
new  position — was  able  to  lighten  them  by  her  un- 
flagging cheerfulness  and  thrift ^ — and  I  was  unwill- 
ing to  take  a  single  step  in  opposition  either  to  her 
wishes  or  her  judgment.  Indeed,  I  had  long  since 
made  up  my  mind,  from  observation  of  the  good  or 
bad  luck  of  other  men,  that  he  who  happens  to  be 
blessed  with  a  wife  possessing  good  sense  and  good 
judgment,  succeeds  or  fails  in  life  according  as  he  is 
accustomed  to  consult  her  in  his  business  enterprises. 
There  is  a  world  of  caution,  shrewdness,  and  latent 
wisdom  in  such  women,  which  their  husbands  too 
frequently  disregard  to  their  ruin. 

I  am  thus  particular  as  to  all  my  experiences  ;  for 
this  is  really  a  domestic  story,  intended  for  the  mul- 
titudes who  have  suffered  half  a  lifetime  from  trials 
similar  to  mine,  and  who  yet  feel  ungratified  long- 
ings for  some  avenue  of  escape.  My  object  being  to 
point  out  that  through  which  I  emerged  from  such  a 
life  to  one  of  certainty  and  comfort,  the  detail  ought 


38  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

to  be  valuable,  even  if  it  fail  to  be  interesting.  It  is 
possible  that  I  may  sink  the  practical  in  the  enthusi- 
astic, and  prove  myself  to  be  unduly  enamored  of 
my  choice.  But  as  it  is  success  that  makes  the  hero, 
so  let  my  experience  be  accepted  as  the  test. 

I  had  settled  it  in  my  mind  that  I  would  use  a 
thousand  dollars  in  the  purchase  of  land,  and  that  I 
could  make  Ten  Acres  Enough.  This  I  was  deter- 
mined to  pay  for  at  once,  and  have  it  covered  by  no 
man's  parchment.  But  when  we  set  out  on  our 
search,  we  found  some  difiBculties.  Every  county 
in  New  Jersey  contained  a  hundred  farms  that  were 
for  sale.  Most  of  them  were  too  large  for  my  slender 
purse,  though  otherwise  most  eligibly  situated. 
Then  we  must  have  a  decent  house,  even  if  we  were 
forced  to  put  up  with  less  land.  Numerous  locations 
of  this  kind  were  offered.  The  trouble  was — keep- 
ing my  slender  purse  in  view — that  the  farms  were 
either  too  large  or  too  small.  My  wife  was  not 
fastidious  about  having  a  fine  house.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  was  often  surprised  to  find  her  pleased  with 
such  as  to  me  looked  small  and  mean.  Indeed,  it 
seemed,  after  ten  days'  search,  that  the  tables  had 
been  turned — she  was  more  easily  suited  than  my- 
self. But  the  same  deference  which  I  paid  to  her 
wishes,  she  uniformly  paid  to  mine. 

It  was  curious  to  note  the  anxiety  of  so  many  land- 
owners to  sell,  and  to  hear  the  discordant  reasons 
which  they  gave  for  desiring  to  do  so.  The  quantity 
in  market  was  enormous.  All  the  real-estate  agents 
had  large  books  filled  with  descriptions  of  farms  and 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  39 

fancy  country-seats  for  sale,  some  to  be  had  by  pay- 
ing one-fourth  of  the  purchase-money  down,  and 
some  which  the  owners  would  exchange  for  mer- 
chandise, or  traps,  or  houses  in  the  city.  Many  of 
them  appeared  simply  to  want  something  else  for 
what  they  already  had.  They  were  tired  of  holding, 
and  desired  a  change  of  some  kind,  better  if  they 
could  make  it,  and  worse  if  they  could  not.  City 
merchants,  or  thriving  mechanics,  had  built  country 
cottages,  and  then  wearied  of  them — it  was  found  in- 
convenient to  be  going  to  and  fro — in  fact,  they  had 
soon  discovered  that  the  city  alone  was  their  place. 
Many  such  told  us  that  their  wives  did  not  like  the 
country. 

Others  had  bought  farms  and  spent  great  sums  in 
improving  them,  only  to  sell  at  a  loss.  Farming  did 
not  pay  an  owner  who  lived  away  off  in  the  city. 
Another  class  had  taken  land  for  debt,  and  wanted 
to  realize.  They  expected  to  lose  anyhow,  and 
would  sell  cheap.  Then  there  was  another  body  of 
owners  who,  though  born  and  raised  upon  the  land, 
were  tired  of  country  life,  and  wanted  to  sell  and 
embark  in  business  in  the  city.  Some  few  were  de- 
sirous of  going  to  the  West.  Change  of  some  kind 
seemed  to  be  the  general  craving.  As  I  discovered 
that  much  of  all  this  land  was  covered  with  mort- 
gages of  greater  or  less  amount,  it  was  natural  to 
suppose  the  sheriff  would  occasionally  turn  up,  and 
so  it  really  was.  There  were  columns  in  some  of 
the  county  papers  filled  with  his  advertisements.  I 
sometimes  thought  the  whole  country  was  for  sale. 


40  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

But  yet  there  was  a  vast  body  of  owners,  many 
of  them  descendants  of  the  early  settlers,  whom  no 
consideration  of  price  could  tempt  to  abandon  their 
inheritances.  They  seemed  to  know  and  understand 
the  value  of  their  ancestral  acres.  We  met  with 
other  parties,  recent  purchasers,  who  had  bought  for 
a  permanency,  and  who  could  not  be  induced  to  sell. 
In  short,  there  seemed  to  be  two  constantly  flowing 
streams  of  people — one  tending  from  city  to  country, 
the  other  from  country  to  city.  Doubtless  it  is  the 
same  way  with  all  our  large  cities.  I  think  the 
latter  stream  was  the  larger.  If  it  were  not  so,  our 
cities  could  not  grow  in  population  at  a  rate  so  much 
more  rapid  than  the  country.  At  numerous  farm- 
houses inquiries  were  made  if  we  knew  of  any  open- 
ings in  the  city  in  which  boys  and  young  men  could 
be  placed.  The  city  was  evidently  the  coveted 
goal  with  too  large  a  number. 

This  glut  of  the  land-market  did  not  discourage  us. 
We  could  not  be  induced  to  believe  that  land  had 
no  value  because  so  many  were  anxious  to  dispose 
of  it.  We  saw  that  it  did  not  suit  those  who  held 
it,  and  knew  that  it  would  suit  us.  But  we  could 
not  but  lament  over  the  infatuation  of  many  owners, 
who  we  felt  certain  would  be  ruined  by  turning  their 
wide  acres  into  money,  and  exposing  it  to  the  hazards 
of  an  untried  business  in  the  city.  I  doubt  not  that 
many  of  the  very  parties  we  then  encountered  have, 
long  before  this,  realized  the  sad  fate  we  feared,  and 
learned  too  late  that  lands  are  better  than  mer- 
chandise. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  41 

'  One  morning,  about  the  middle  of  March,  we 
found  the  very  spot  we  had  been  seeking.  It  lay 
upon  the  Amboy  Railroad,  within  a  few  miles  of 
Philadelphia,  within  gunshot  of  a  railroad  station,  and 
on  the  outskirts  of  a  town  containing  churches, 
schools,  and  stores,  with  quite  an  educated  society. 
The  grounds  comprised  eleven  acres,  and  the  dwell- 
ing-house was  quite  large  enough  for  my  family. 
It  struck  the  fancy  of  my  wife  the  moment  we  came 
up  to  it ;  and  when  she  had  gone  over  the  house, 
looked  into  the  kitchen,  explored  the  cellar,  and 
walked  round  the  garden,  she  expressed  the  strongest 
desire  to  make  it  our  home. 

There  was  barn  enough  to  accommodate  a  horse 
and  cow,  with  a  ton  or  two  of  hay,  quite  an  exten- 
sive shed,  and  I  noticed  that  the  barnyard  contained 
a  good  pile  of  manure  which  was  to  go  with  the 
property.  The  buildings  were  of  modern  date,  the 
fences  were  good,  and  there  was  evidence  that  a  for- 
mer occupant  had  exercised  a  taste  for  fruit  and 
ornamental  trees,  while  the  garden  was  in  very  fair 
condition.  But  the  land  had  been  wholly  neglected. 
All  outside  of  the  garden  was  a  perfect  scarecrow  of 
tall  weeds,  thousands  of  which  stood  clear  up  to  the 
fence  top,  making  sure  that  they  had  scattered  seeds 
enough  for  twenty  future  crops. 

But  I  noticed  that  the  land  directly  opposite  was 
in  the  most  admirable  condition,  and  I  saw  at  a 
glance  that  the  soil  must  be  adapted  to  the  very  pur- 
pose to  which  it  was  to  be  applied.  The  opposite 
ground  was  matted  with  a  luxuriant  growth  of  straw- 


42  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

berries,  while  rows  of  stalwart  raspberries  held  up 
their  vigorous  canes  in  testimony  of  the  goodness  of 
the  soil.  A  fine  peach-orchard  on  the  same  neigh- 
boring property,  seemed  impatient  to  put  forth  and 
blossom  unto  harvest.  The  eleven  acres  could  be 
no  worse  land  than  this,  and  though  I  had  a  horror 
of  weeds,  yet  I  was  not  to  be  frightened  by  them. 
I  knew  that  weeds  were  more  indigenous  to  New 
Jersey  than  even  watermelons. 

This  miniature  plantation  of  eleven  acres  be- 
longed to  a  merchant  in  the  city.  He  had  taken 
it  to  secure  a  debt  of  eleven  hundred  dollars,  but 
had  pledged  himself  to  pay  the  former  owner  what- 
ever excess  over  that  sum  he  might  obtain  for  it. 
But  pledges  of  that  loose  character  seldom  amount 
to  much — the  creditor  consults  his  own  interest,  not 
that  of  the  debtor.  The  latter  had  long  been  try- 
ing to  sell,  but  in  vain ;  and  now  the  former  had 
become  equally  embarrassed,  and  needed  money 
even  more  urgently  than  the  debtor  had  done.  The 
whole  property  had  cost  the  debtor  eighteen  hun- 
dred dollars.  His  views  in  founding  it  were  similar 
to  mine.  He  meant  to  establish  for  himself  a  home, 
to  which  at  some  future  period  he  might  retire. 
But  he  made  the  sad  mistake  of  continuing  in  busi- 
ness in  the  city,  and  one  disaster  succeeding  another, 
he  had  been  compelled  to  abandon  his  anticipated 
refuge  nearly  a  year  before  we  came  along. 

All  these  facts  I  learned  before  beginning  to 
negotiate  for  the  purchase.  As  the  banished  man 
related  them  to  me,  going  largely  into  the  history 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  43 

of  his  hopes,  his  trials,  his  disappointments,  I  found 
cause  for  renewed  thankfulness  over  my  superior 
condition.  With  a  single  exception,  his  experience 
had  been  the  counterpart  of  my  own — ^he  had  lost 
all  and  was  loaded  with  debt,  while  I  had  saved 
something  and  owed  no  man.  But  when,  in  lan- 
guage of  the  tenderest  feeling,  he  spoke  of  his  wife, 
whose  highest  passion  had  been  gratified  by  the  pos- 
session of  a  home  so  humble  as  even  this — when  he 
described  bow  happy  she  had  been  in  her  garden, 
and  how  grief -stricken  at  being  compelled  to  leave 
it — his  eloquence  fairly  made  my  heart  ache.  I 
am  sure  my  wife  felt  the  full  force  of  all  he  said. 
Her  own  attachment  to  the  spot  had  already  begun 
to  take  root,  and  she  could  sympathize  with  this 
rude  sundering  of  a  long-established  tie. 


44  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  V. 

MAKING    A   PURCHASE FIRST    IMPRESSIONS. 

The  owner  of  these  eleven  acres  had  been  for 
some  months  in  the  furnace  of  pecuniary  affliction. 
He  was  going  the  way  of  nine-tenths  of  all  the  busi- 
ness flesh  within  the  circle  of  my  acquaintance.  As 
a  purchaser  I  did  not  seek  him,  nor  to  his  repre- 
sentative did  myself  or  mj''  wife  let  fall  a  single 
word  indicating  that  we  were  pleased  with  the  prop- 
erty. When  fifteen  hundred  dollars  were  named 
as  the  price  I  did  indulge  in  some  expression  of  sur- 
prise, thinking  it  was  quite  enough.  Discovering 
subsequently  that  the  owner  was  an  old  city  ac- 
quaintance, I  dropped  in  one  morning  to  see  him, 
and  for  an  hour  we  talked  over  the  times,  the  mar- 
kets, the  savage  rates  demanded  for  money,  and 
how  the  spring  business  was  likely  to  turn  out.  On 
real  estate  I  was  mute  as  a  mouse,  except  giving  it 
as  my  decided  opinion  that  some  holders  were  ask- 
ing greater  prices  than  they  would  be  likely  to 
realize. 

This  side-thrust  brought  my  friend  out.  He 
mentioned  his  house  and  eleven  acres,  and  eagerly 
inquired  if  I  did  not  know  of  some  one  who  would 
buy.    With  as  much  indifference  as  I  could  assume, 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  45 

I  asked  his  terms.  He  told  me  with  great  frank- 
ness that  he  was  compelled  to  sell,  and  that  his  need 
of  money  was  so  great,  that  he  might  possibly  do  so 
whether  the  debtor  got  anything  or  not.  He  urged 
me  to  find  him  a  purchaser,  and  finally  gave  me  the 
refusal  of  the  place  for  a  few  days. 

Now,  the  plain  truth  was,  that  my  anxiety  to  buy 
was  quite  as  great  as  his  was  to  sell.  During  the 
next  week  we  met  several  times,  when  he  invariably 
inquired  as  to  the  prospect  of  a  purchaser.  But  I 
had  no  encouragement  to  offer.  When  I  thought  I 
had  fought  shy  long  enough,  I  surprised  him  by 
saying  that  I  knew  of  a  purchaser  who  was  ready 
to  take  the  property  at  a  thousand  dollars.  He  sat 
down  and  indulged  in  some  figuring,  then  for  a  few 
moments  was  silent,  then  inquired  if  the  offer  was  a 
cash  one,  and  when  the  money  could  be  had.  I  re- 
plied, the  moment  his  deed  was  ready  for  delivery. 

It  was  evident  that  the  offer  of  instant  payment 
determined  him  to  sell  at  so  low  a  price — cash  was 
everything.  Opening  his  desk,  he  took  out  a  deed 
for  the  property,  ready  to  execute  whenever  the 
grantee's  name,  the  date  and  the  consideration 
should  have  been  inserted,  handed  it  to  me,  and  said 
he  accepted  the  offer,  only  let  him  have  the  money 
as  quickly  as  possible. 

I  confess  to  both  exultation  and  surprise.  I  had 
secured  an  unmistakable  bargain  The  ready-made 
deed  surprised  me,  but  it  showed  the  owner's  neces- 
sities, and  that  he  had  been  prepared  to  let  the 
property  go  at  the  first  decent  offer.    The  natural 


46  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

selfishness  of  human  nature  has  since  induced  me  to 
believe  that  I  could  have  bought  for  even  less,  had  I 
not  been  so  precipitate.  His  searches  and  brief  of 
title  were  also  ready :  a  single  day  or  two  was 
enough  to  bring  them  up — he  had  been  determined 
to  sell. 

The  transaction  seemed  to  involve  a  succession  of 
surprises.  His  turn  for  a  new  one  came  when  he 
found  that  I  had  inserted  my  wife's  name  in  the  deed. 
So,  paying  him  his  thousand  dollars,  I  returned  with 
the  deed  to  my  wife,  telling  her  that  she  had  now  a 
home  of  her  own ;  that,  come  what  might,  the  prop- 
erty was  hers ;  that  the  laws  of  New  Jersey  secured 
it  to  her,  and  that  no  subsequent  destitution  of  mine 
could  wrest  it  from  her.  This  little  act  of  consider- 
ation was  as  gratifying  a  surprise  to  her  as  any  that 
either  buyer  or  seller  had  experienced.  If  rejoiced 
at  my  having  secured  the  place,  it  gave  to  it  a  new 
interest  in  her  estimation,  and  fixed  and  made  per- 
manent the  attachment  she  had  spontaneously  ac- 
quired for  it.  Her  gratification  only  served  to 
increase  my  own. 

It  is  thus  that  small  acts  of  kindness  make  life 
pleasant  and  desirable.  Every  dark  object  is  made 
light  by  them,  and  many  scalding  tears  of  sorrow  are 
thus  easily  brushed  away.  When  the  heart  is  sad, 
and  despondency  sits  at  the  entrance  of  the  soul,  a 
little  kindness  drives  despair  away,  and  makes  the 
path  cheerful  and  pleasant.  Who  then  will  refuse  a 
kind  act?  It  costs  the  giver  nothing — just  as  this 
did ;  but  it  is  invaluable  to  the  receiver.  No  broader 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  47 

acres,  no  more  stately  mansion,  whether  in  town  or 
country,  could  now  tempt  my  wife  to  leave  this 
humble  refuge.  Here  she  has  been  ever  happy,  and 
here,  I  doubt  not,  she  will  end  her  earthly  career. 

In  a  week  the  house  was  vacated  and  cleansed,  and 
we  were  in  full  possession.  My  wife  was  satisfied, 
my  children  were  delighted,  and  I  had  realized  the 
dream  of  twenty  years !  One  strong  fact  forced  itself 
on  my  attention  the  first  night  I  passed  under  my 
new  roof.  The  drain  of  three  hundred  dollars  per 
annum  into  the  pocket  of  my  city  landlord  had  been 
stopped.  My  family  received  as  safe  a  shelter  for 
the  interest  of  a  thousand  dollars,  as  he  had  given 
them  for  the  interest  of  five  thousand !  The  feeling 
of  relief  from  this  unappeasable  demand  was  inde- 
scribable. Curiously  enough,  my  wife  voluntarily 
suggested  that  the  same  feeling  of  relief  had  been 
presented  to  her.  But  in  addition  to  this  huge 
equivalent  for  the  investment  of  a  thousand  dollars, 
there  was  that  which  might  be  hereafter  realized 
from  the  cultivation  of  eleven  acres  of  land. 

This  lodgment  was  effected  on  the  first  of  April, 
1855.  When  all  our  household  fixings  had  been 
snugly  arranged,  and  I  took  my  first  walk  over  my 
little  plantation,  on  a  soft  and  balmy  morning,  my 
feeling  of  contentment  seemed  to  be  perfect.  I 
knew  that  I  was  not  rich,  but  it  was  certain  that  I 
was  not  poor.  In  contrasting  my  condition  with 
that  of  others,  both  higher  and  lower  upon  fortune's 
ladder,  I  found  a  thousand  causes  for  congratula- 
tion, but  none  for  regret.    With  all  his  wealth, 


48  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

Rothschild  must  be  satisfied  with  the  same  sky  that 
was  spread  over  me.  He  cannot  order  a  private  sun- 
rise, that  he  may  enjoy  it  with  a  select  circle  of 
friends,  nor  add  a  single  glory  to  the  gorgeous  spec- 
tacle of  the  setting  sun.  The  millionaire  could  not 
have  more  than  his  share  of  the  pure  atmosphere 
that  I  was  breathing,  while  the  poorest  of  all  men 
could  have  as  much.  God  only  can  give  all  these, 
and  to  many  of  the  poor  he  has  thus  given.  All 
that  is  most  valuable  can  be  had  for  nothing.  They 
come  as  presents  from  the  hand  of  an  indulgent 
Father,  and  neither  air  nor  sky,  nor  beauty,  genius, 
health,  or  strength,  can  be  bought  or  sold.  What- 
ever may  be  one's  condition  in  life,  the  great  art  is 
to  learn  to  be  content  and  happy,  indulging  in  no 
feverish  longings  for  what  we  have  not,  but  satis- 
fied and  thankful  for  what  we  have. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  49 


CHAPTER    VI. 

PLANTING    A   PEACH-ORCHARD HOW    TO   PRESERVE 

PEACH-TREES. 

It  was  now  the  season  for  me  to  bustle  about,  fix 
up  my  land,  and  get  in  my  crops.  I  examined  it 
more  carefully,  walked  over  it  daily,  and  made  my- 
self thoroughly  acquainted  with  it.  As  before 
mentioned,  it  had  been  utterly  neglected  for  a  whole 
season,  and  was  grown  up  with  enormous  weeds. 
These,  after  a  day  or  two  of  drizzling  rain,  when  the 
seed-vessels  were  so  wet  as  not  to  allow  their  con- 
tents to  scatter  out,  I  mowed  off,  gathered  into 
several  large  heaps,  and  burned— thus  getting  rid  of 
millions  of  pestiferous  seeds.  Then  I  purchased 
ploughs,  including  a  subsoiler,  a  harrow,  cultivator, 
and  other  tools.  One  acre  of  the  whole  was  in 
clover,  another  was  set  aside  as  being  occupied  by 
the  dwelling-house,  garden,  stable,  and  barnyard; 
but  much  the  larger  half  of  that  acre  was  allowed 
for  garden  purposes.  This  left  me  just  nine  acres 
for  general  fruit  and  vegetable  culture.  I  hired  a 
man  to  plough  them  up,  he  finding  his  own  team, 
and  another  to  follow  him  in  the  furrow  with  my 
subsoiler.  The  first  went  down  ten  inches,  and  the 
latter  ten  more. 
4 


50  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

My  neighbors  were  extremely  kind  with  their  sug- 
gestions. They  had  never  seen  such  deep  ploughing, 
and  warned  me  not  to  turn  up  the  old  subsoil,  and 
thus  bring  it  to  the  surface.  But  they  were  not 
book-farmers. 

Now,  this  business  of  deep  subsoil  ploughing  is  a 
matter  of  indispensable  value  in  all  agriculture,  but 
especially  so  in  the  planting  of  an  orchard.  No  tree 
can  thrive  as  it  ought,  unless  the  earth  is  thor- 
oughly and  deeply  loosened  for  the  free  expansion 
of  the  roots.  If  I  could  have  ploughed  two  feet 
deep,  it  would  have  been  all  the  better.  In  fact,  the 
art  of  ploughing  is  in  its  mere  infancy  in  this  coun- 
try. Too  many  of  us  follow  blindly  in  the  beaten 
track.  The  first  plough  was  a  tough,  forked  stick, 
of  which  one  prong  served  as  a  beam,  while  the 
other  dug  the  earth  as  a  coulter.  Of  course  the 
ploughing  was  only  scratching.  It  would  have  been 
preposterous  to  expect  the  ploughman  of  Hesiod's 
or  of  Virgil's  time  to  turn  up  and  mellow  the  soil  to 
a  depth  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  inches.  Down  to  the 
present  age,  ploughing  was  inevitably  a  shallow 
affair.  But  iron  ploughs,  steel  ploughs,  subsoil 
ploughs,  have  changed  all  this.  It  is  as  easy  to- 
day to  mellow  the  earth  to  the  depth  of  two  feet, 
as  it  was  a  century  ago  to  turn  over  a  sward  to  the 
depth  of  six  inches.  Besides,  our  fierce,  trying  cli- 
mate, so  different  from  the  moist,  milder  one  of 
England,  Ireland,  or  even  Holland,  whence  our 
ancestors  emigrated,  absolutely  requires  of  us  deep 
ploughing.    Drought  is  our  perpetual  danger.    Most 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  51 

crops  are  twenty  to  sixty  per  cent,  short  of  what 
they  would  have  been  with  adequate  and  seasonable 
moisture.  That  moisture  exists  not  only  in  the 
skies  above,  but  in  the  earth  beneath  our  plants. 
Though  the  skies  may  capriciously  withhold  it,  the 
earth  never  will,  if  we  provide  a  rich,  mellow  sub- 
soil through  which  the  roots  can  descend  for 
moisture. 

The  hotter  and  dryer  the  weather,  the  better  our 
plants  will  grow,  if  they  have  rich,  warm  earth 
beneath  them,  reaching  down  to  and  including 
moisture.  We  cannot,  and  we  need  not  plough  so 
very  deep  each  year  to  assure  this,  if  the  subsoil  is 
so  underdrained  that  the  superabundant  moisture  of 
the  wet  season  does  not  pack  it.  Underdraining  as 
the  foundation,  and  deep  ploughing  as  the  super- 
structure, with  ample  manuring  and  generous  till- 
age, will  secure  us  ample  crops,  such  as  any  section 
of  our  country  has  rarely  seen.  Our  corn  should 
average  seventy  bushels  per  acre.  Every  field 
should  be  ready  to  grow  wheat,  if  required.  Every 
grass-lot  should  be  good  for  three  tons  of  hay  per 
acre.  Abundant  fruits  should  gladden  our  fields 
and  enrich  our  farmers'  tables.  So  should  our  chil- 
dren no  longer  seek,  in  flight  to  crowded  cities  or 
the  remote  West,  an  escape  from  the  ill-paid  drudg- 
ery and  intellectual  barrenness  of  their  fathers' 
lives,  but  find  abundance  and  happiness  in  and 
around  their  childhood's  happy  homes. 

I  laid  out  two  hundred  dollars  in  the  purchase  of 
old,  well-rotted  stable  manure  from  the  city,  spread 


52  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

it  over  the  ten  acres,  and  ploughed  up  nine  of  them. 
I  then  set  out  my  peach-trees  on  six  acres,  planting 
them  in  rows  eighteen  feet  apart,  and  eighteen  feet 
asunder  in  the  rows.  This  accommodated  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty-four  to  the  acre,  or  eight  hundred 
and  four  in  all.  These  would  not  be  in  the  way  of 
any  other  crop,  and  in  three  years  would  be  likely 
to  yield  a  good  return.  The  roots  of  every  tree  un- 
derwent a  searching  scrutiny  before  it  was  planted, 
to  see  that  they  harbored  no  members  of  that  worm 
family  which  is  so  surely  destructive  of  the  peach- 
As  trees  are  often  delivered  from  the  nursery  with 
worms  in  them,  so  many  of  these  were  infected. 
The  enemy  was  killed,  and  the  butt  of  each  tree  was 
then  swabbed  with  common  tar,  extending  from 
where  the  roots  begin  to  branch  out,  about  twelve 
inches  up.  It  is  just  about  there,  say  between  wind 
and  water,  at  the  surface  of  the  ground,  where  the 
bark  is  soft,  that  in  June  and  September  the  peach- 
moth  deposits  her  eggs.  From  these  is  hatched  the 
worm  which  kills  the  tree,  unless  picked  out  and 
destroyed. 

To  perform  this  searching  operation  on  a  thousand 
trees  every  year,  would  be  laborious  and  expensive. 
There  would  also  be  great  danger  of  its  being  im- 
perfectly done,  as  many  worms  might  escape  the 
search,  while  the  vital  power  of  the  tree  would  be 
seriously  impaired  by  permitting  them  to  prey  upon 
its  bark  and  juices  even  for  a  few  months.  Preven- 
tion would  be  far  cheaper  than  curing.  The  offen- 
sive odor  of  the  tar  will  cause  the  moth  to  shun  the 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  63 

tree  and  to  make  her  deposit  somewhere  else ;  while 
if  any  chance  to  light  upon  it,  they  will  stick  to  the 
tar  and  there  perish,  like  flies  upon  a  sheet  of  fly- 
paper. 

The  tar  was  occasionally  examined  during  the  sea- 
son, to  see  that  it  kept  soft  and  sticky ;  and  where 
any  hardening  was  discovered,  a  fresh  swabbing 
was  applied.  The  whole  operation  was  really  one  of 
very  little  trouble,  while  the  result  was  highly 
remunerative.  Thoughtfulness,  industry,  and  a 
little  tar,  did  the  business  effectually.  I  believe  no 
nostrum  of  putting  ashes  around  the  butt  of  a  peach- 
tree  to  kill  the  worms,  or  any  other  nostrum  of  the 
kind,  is  worth  a  copper.  The  only  sure  remedy  is 
prevention.  Do  not  let  the  worms  get  in,  and  there 
will  be  no  effort  needed  to  get  them  out. 

I  planted  none  but  the  rarest  and  choicest  kinds. 
Economy  of  a  few  cents  in  the  price  of  a  tree  is  no 
economy  at  all.  It  is  the  best  fruit  that  sells  the 
quickest  and  pays  the  highest  profit.  Yet  there  are 
still  large  quantities  of  fruit  produced  which  is  not 
worth  taking  to  market.  The  best  is  cheaper  for 
both  buyer  and  seller.  Hundreds  of  bushels  of  ap- 
ples and  peaches  are  annually  made  into  execrable 
pies  in  all  the  large  cities,  merely  because  they  can 
be  purchased  at  less  cost  than  those  of  a  better 
quality.  But  it  is  a  mistaken  economy  with  the 
buyer,  as  a  mild,  good-flavored  peach  or  apple 
requires  less  sugar,  and  will  then  make  a  better  pie. 
Many  persons  have  a  pride  in,  and  attach  too  much 
consequence  to  a  tree  which  sprung  up  spontane- 


54  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

ously  on  their  own  farm,  or  perhaps  which  they 
have  cultivated  with  some  care  ;  and  then  numbers 
of  comparatively  worthless  seedlings  occupy  the 
places  that  should  be  improved  by  finer  varieties, 
and  which,  if  cultivated,  would  afford  a  greater 
profit. 

It  is  as  easy  to  grow  the  choicest  as  the  meanest 
fruit.  I  have  a  relative  in  Ohio  who  has  a  peach 
orchard  of  eleven  acres,  which  has  yielded  him  five 
thousand  dollars  in  a  single  season,  during  which 
peaches  were  selling  in  Cincinnati  at  twenty-five 
cents  a  bushel.  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  his 
orchard  would  not  have  produced  him  that  sum  at 
that  price.  No,  it  did  not.  He  received  two  dollars 
a  bushel  more  readily  than  his  neighbors  got 
twenty-five  cents  for  the  same  variety  of  peaches, 
and  this  is  how  he  did  it.  When  the  peaches  had 
grown  as  large  as  a  hickory  nut,  he  employed  a  large 
force  and  put  on  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  days' 
work  in  picking  off  the  excess  of  fruit.  More  than 
one-half  of  the  fruit  then  upon  the  trees  was  care- 
fully removed.  Each  limb  was  taken  by  hand,  and 
where,  within  a  space  of  eighteen  inches,  there  would 
be  probably  twenty  peaches,  but  six  or  seven  of  the 
fairest  would  be  left  to  ripen.  Thus,  by  carefully 
removing  all  but  the  strongest  specimens,  and 
throwing  all  the  vigor  of  the  tree  into  them,  the 
peaches  ripen  early,  and  are  remarkable  for  size  and 
excellence  of  quality. 

But  this  was  labor !  Seven  months'  labor  of  one 
man  in  a  small  peach  orchard !    But  be  it  so — the 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  55 

net  profit  was  between  three  and  four  thousand 
dollars.  If  he  had  neglected  his  trees,  the  owner's 
profits  would  have  been  a  crop  of  peaches  hardly  fit 
to  feed  the  pigs.  I  have  profited  largely  by  follow- 
ing his  example,  and  will  relate  my  own  experience 
when  the  returns  of  my  orchard  come  in. 

I  intend  to  be  particular  touching  my  peach  or- 
chard, as  well  for  the  gratification  of  my  own  pride, 
as  an  incentive  to  those  who  cannot  be  made  to  be- 
lieve Ten  Acres  Enough.  My  success  with  it  has 
far  outstripped  my  expectations ;  and  I  pronounce  a 
peach  orchard  of  this  size,  planted  and  cultivated  as 
it  can  be,  and  will  be,  by  an  intelligent  man  not 
essentially  lazy,  as  the  sheet  anchor  of  his  safety. 
I  was  careful  to  plant  none  but  small  trees,  because 
such  can  be  removed  from  the  nursery  with  greater 
safety  than  large  ones,  while  the  roots  are  less  mul- 
tiplied, and  thus  receive  fewer  injuries  ;  neither  are 
they  liable  to  be  displaced  by  high  winds  before  ac- 
quiring a  firm  foothold  in  the  ground.  Many  per- 
sons suppose  that  newly  planted  trees  should  be 
large  enough  to  be  out  of  danger  from  cattle  running 
among  them ;  but  all  cattle  should  be  excluded 
from  a  young  orchard. 

Moreover,  small  trees  make  a  better  growth,  and 
are  more  easily  trimmed  into  proper  shape.  All  ex- 
perienced horticulturists  testify  to  the  superior 
eligibility  of  small  trees.  They  cost  less  at  the 
nursery,  less  in  transportation,  and  very  few  fail  to 
grow.  One  year  old  from  the  bud  is  old  enough, 
and  the  same,  generally,  may  be  said  of  apples  and 


56  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

pears.  I  dug  holes  for  each  tree  three  feet  square 
and  two  feet  deep,  and  filled  in  with  a  mixture  of  the 
surrounding  top-soil  and  leached  ashes,  a  half  bushel 
of  the  latter  to  each  tree.  Knowing  that  the  peach- 
tree  delights  in  ashes,  I  obtained  four  hundred 
bushels  from  a  city  soap-works,  and  am  satisfied 
they  were  exactly  the  manure  my  orchard  needed. 
Every  root  which  had  been  wounded  by  the  spade 
in  removing  the  tree  from  the  nursery,  was  cut  off 
just  back  of  the  wound,  paring  it  smooth  with  a 
sharp  knife.  The  fine  earth  was  settled  around  the 
roots  by  pouring  in  water  ;  after  which  the  mixture 
of  earth  and  ashes  was  thrown  on  until  the  hole 
was  filled,  leaving  a  slight  depression  round  the 
tree,  to  catch  the  rain,  and  the  tree  at  about  the 
same  level  it  had  maintained  when  standing  in  the 
nursery. 

I  did  not  stake  up  the  trees.  They  were  too  small 
to  need  it ;  besides,  I  should  be  all  the  time  on  hand 
to  keep  them  in  position.  Being  a  new-comer,  I 
had  no  straw  with  which  to  mulch  them,  to  retain 
the  proper  moisture  about  the  roots,  or  it  would  have 
been  applied.  But  the  season  turned  out  to  be  abun- 
dantly showery,  and  they  went  on  growing  from  the 
start.  Not  a  tree  was  upset  by  storm  or  wind,  nor 
did  one  of  them  die.  I  do  not  think  the  oldest 
nurseryman  in  the  country  could  have  been  more 
successful. 

This  operation  made  a  heavy  draft  on  the  small 
cash  capital  which  I  possessed.  But  small  as  it  was, 
it  was  large  enough  to  show  that  capital  is  indispen- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  57 

sable  to  successful  farming.  Had  I  been  without  it, 
my  orchard  would  have  been  a  mere  hope,  instead 
of  a  reality,  and  I  might  have  been  compelled  to  wait 
for  years  before  feeling  rich  enough  to  establish  it. 
But  when  the  work  of  planting  was  over,  my  satis- 
faction was  extreme ;  and  when  I  saw  the  trees  in 
full  leaf,  giving  token  that  the  work  had  been  well 
done,  I  felt  that  I  had  not  only  learned  but  accom- 
plished much.  I  had  been  constantly  on  the  ground 
while  the  planting  was  progressing — had  seen  for 
myself  that  every  tree  was  cleared  of  worms — had 
held  them  up  while  the  water  and  the  earth  and 
ashes  had  been  thrown  in  and  gently  packed  about 
the  roots — and  had  given  so  much  attention  in  other 
ways,  as  to  feel  sure  that  no  part  of  the  whole  oper- 
ation had  been  neglected ;  and  hence  I  had  a  clear 
right  to  regard  it  as  my  own  job. 

The  cost  of  planting  this  orchard  was  as  follows  : 

804  trees  at  7  cents $  56.28 

Planting  them,  2  cents 16.08 

Ploughing  and  harrowing 20 .  00 

400  bushels  of  ashes 48.00 

Manure 200.00 

$340.36 

I  have  unfairly  saddled  on  the  orchard  the  whole 
charge  of  two  hundred  dollars  for  manure,  because 
it  went  to  nourish  other  crops  which  the  same 
ground  produced.  But  let  that  go — the  land  was 
quite  poor,  needed  all  it  got,  and  I  had  no  faith  in 
farming  without    manure.     Had    my  purse    been 


58  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

heavy  enough,  the  quantity  should  have  been 
trebled. 

As  I  am  writing  for  the  benefit  of  others,  who,  I 
hope,  are  not  yet  tired  of  peaches,  let  me  add  that 
this  fruit  will  not  succeed  on  ground  where  a  previ- 
ous orchard  has  been  recently  grown ;  neither  can  one 
be  sure  of  getting  healthy  trees  from  any  nurseryman 
who  grows  his  on  land  from  which  he  had  recently 
produced  a  similar  crop.  The  seed  must  be  from 
healthy  trees,  and  the  buds  from  others  equally  free 
from  disease.  The  peach,  unless  carefully  watched 
and  attended,  is  a  short-lived  tree.  But  it  returns  a 
generous  income  to  a  careful  and  generous  grower. 
Of  latter  years  the  worm  is  its  most  formidable  ene- 
my. But  with  those  who  think  a  good  tree  is  as 
much  worth  being  taken  care  of  as  a  good  horse, 
there  will  be  neither  doubt  nor  difficulty  in  keep- 
ing the  destroyer  out. 

Ten  well-grown,  bearing  trees,  which  I  found  in 
the  garden,  were  harboring  a  hundred  and  ninety 
worms  among  them  when  I  undertook  the  work  of 
extermination.  I  bared  the  collar  and  roots  of  each 
tree  as  far  as  I  could  track  a  worm,  and  cut  him 
out.  I  then  scrubbed  the  whole  exposed  part  with 
soap-suds  and  a  regular  scrubbing-brush;  after 
which  I  let  them  remain  exposed  for  a  week.  If 
any  worms  had  been  overlooked,  the  chips  thrown 
out  by  their  operations  would  be  plainly  visible  on 
the  clean  surface  at  the  week's  end.  Having 
tracked  and  cut  out  them  also,  I  felt  sure  the 
enemy  was  exterminated,  and  covered  up  the  roots, 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  59 

but  first  using  the  swab  of  common  tar,  applying  it 
all  round  the  collar,  and  some  distance  up. 

These  garden -trees  were  terribly  sacrificed  by  the 
worms.  But  the  cleaning  out  I  gave  them  was 
effectual.  The  soap-suds  purged  the  injured  parts 
of  the  unhealthy  virus  deposited  by  the  worms, 
leaving  them  so  nice  and  clean  that  the  new  bark 
began  immediately  to  close  over  the  cavities,  and 
soon  covered  them  entirely.  I  thus  saved  ten  val- 
uable bearing  trees.  Then  I  shortened  in  the  long, 
straggling  branches,  for  the  peach  will  certainly 
grow  sprawling  out  on  every  side,  forming  long 
branches  which  break  down  under  the  weight  of  a 
full  crop  at  their  extremities,  unless  the  pruning- 
knife  is  freely  used  every  season.  All  this  was 
the  work  of  less  than  a  day,  and  shows  that  if 
peach  orchards  perish  after  bearing  only  two  or 
three  crops,  it  may  be  attributed  solely  to  mere 
neglect  and  laziness  on  the  part  of  their  owners. 
They  plant  trees,  refuse  to  take  care  of  them,  and 
then  complain  if  they  die  early.  The  world  would 
soon  be  without  pork,  if  all  the  pigs  were  as  much 
neglected.  These  ten  trees  have  never  failed  to 
produce  me  generous  crops  of  luscious  fruit.  I  can- 
not think  of  any  investment  which  has  paid  me 
better  than  the  slight  labor  annually  required  to 
keep  them  in  good  condition. 

I  have  tried  with  entire  success  two  other  methods 
of  protecting  peach-trees  from  the  ravages  of  the 
worm.  I  have  found  gas-tar  equally  effectual  with 
the  common  tar,  and  much  more  easily  obtained. 


60  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

But  care  must  be  taken  not  to  cover  a  height  of 
more  than  four  to  six  inches  of  the  butt  of  the  tree. 
If  the  whole  stem  from  root  to  branch  be  covered, 
the  tree  will  surely  die.  Another  method  is  to  in- 
close the  butt  in  a  jacket  of  pasteboard,  or  even 
thick  hardware  paper,  keeping  it  in  place  with  a 
string,  and  lowering  it  an  inch  or  two  below  the 
ground,  so  as  to  prevent  the  fly  having  access  to  the 
soft  part  of  the  bark.  These  jackets  will  last  two 
or  three  years,  as  they  should  be  taken  off  at  the  ap- 
proach of  winter,  to  prevent  them  from  becoming  a 
harbor  for  insects.  But  they  are  an  infallible  pre- 
ventive. I  have  recently  procured  a  supply  of  the 
thick  tarred  felt  which  is  used  for  making  paper 
roofs,  to  be  cut  up  and  turned  into  jackets.  This 
material  will  last  for  years,  being  water-proof, 
while  the  odor  of  the  gas- tar  in  which  it  has  been 
steeped  is  peculiarly  offensive  to  the  whole  tribe  of 
insects. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  61 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PLANTING    RASPBERRIES  AND  STRAWBERRIES TRICKS 

OF    THE    NURSERY. 

My  peach-orchard  was  no  sooner  finished  than  I 
filled  each  row  with  raspberries,  setting  the  roots 
two  feet  apart  in  the  rows.  This  enabled  me  to  get 
seven  roots  in  between  every  two  trees,  or  five 
thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty-six  in  all.  This  was 
equivalent  to  nearly  two  acres  wholly  planted  with 
raspberries  according  to  the  usual  plan.  They 
would  go  on  growing  without  injuring  the  peach- 
trees,  or  being  injured  by  them ;  and  when  the  lat- 
ter should  reach  their  full  growth,  their  shade 
would  be  highly  beneficial  to  the  raspberries,  as 
they  thrive  better  and  bear  more  freely  when  half 
protected  from  the  burning  sun.  The  tops  were 
cut  off  within  a  few  inches  of  the  ground,  thus  pre- 
venting any  excessive  draft  upon  the  newly  planted 
roots.  No  staking  up  was  needed.  These  roots 
cost  me  six  dollars  per  thousand,  or  thirty-four 
dollars  for  the  lot,  and  were  the  ordinary  Red  Ant- 
werp. The  season  proving  showery,  they  grew  finely. 
Some  few  died,  but  my  general  luck  was  very  satis- 
factory. I  planted  the  whole  lot  in  three  days  with 
my  own  hands. 


62  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

I  am  sure  the  growth  of  my  raspberries  was  owing, 
in  a  great  degree,  to  the  deep  ploughing  the  land  had 
received.  The  soil  they  delight  in  is  one  combining 
richness,  depth,  and  moisture.  It  is  only  from  such 
that  a  full  crop  may  be  expected  every  season.  The 
roots  must  have  abundance  of  elbow-room  to  run 
down  and  suck  up  moisture  from  the  abundant 
reservoir  which  exists  below.  Deep  ploughing  will 
save  them  from  the  effects  of  dry  weather,  which 
otherwise  will  blast  the  grower's  hopes,  giving  him 
a  small  berry,  shrivelled  up  from  want  of  moisture, 
instead  of  one  of  ample  size,  rich,  and  juicy.  Hence 
irrigation  has  been  known  to  double  the  size  of 
raspberries,  as  well  as  doubling  the  growth  of  the 
canes  in  a  single  season.  Mulching  also  is  a  capital 
thing.  One  row  so  treated,  by  way  of  experiment, 
showed  a  marked  improvement  over  all  the  others, 
besides  keeping  down  the  weeds. 

As  a  market  fruit  the  raspberry  stands  on  the  same 
list  with  the  best,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  one  cannot 
produce  too  much.  For  this  purpose  I  consider  the 
Red  Antwerp  most  admirably  adapted.  There  are 
twenty  other  varieties,  some  of  which  are  probably 
quite  as  valuable,  but  I  was  unwilling  to  have  my 
attention  divided  among  many  sorts.  One  really 
good  berry  was  enough  for  me.  Some  of  my 
neighbors  have  as  much  as  ten  acres  in  this  fruit, 
from  which  they  realize  prodigious  profits.  Like 
all  the  smaller  fruits,  it  yields  a  quick  return  to  an 
industrious  and  pains-taking  cultivator. 

Immediately  on  getting  my  raspberries  in,  I  went 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  63 

twice  over  the  six  acres  with  the  cultivator,  stirring 
up  the  ground  some  four  inches  deep,  as  it  had  been 
a  good  deal  trampled  down  by  our  planting  opera- 
tions. This  I  did  myself  with  a  thirty-dollar  horse 
which  I  had  recently  bought.  Having  eighteen  feet 
between  two  rows  of  peach-trees,  I  divided  this 
space  into  five  rows  for  strawberries,  giving  me  very 
nearly  three  feet  between  each  row.  In  these  rows 
I  set  the  strawberry  plants,  one  foot  apart,  making 
about  10,000  plants  per  acre,  allowing  for  the  head- 
lands. I  bought  the  whole  60,000  required  for  $2 
per  thousand,  making  $120.  This  was  below  the 
market  price. 

In  planting  these  I  got  three  of  the  children  to 
help  me,  and  though  it  was  more  tiresome  work  than 
they  had  ever  been  accustomed  to,  yet  they  stood 
bravely  up  to  it.  Every  noon  we  four  went  home 
with  raging  appetites  for  dinner,  where  the  plain 
but  well-cooked  fare  provided  by  my  wife  and  eldest 
daughter — for  she  kept  no  servant — was  devoured 
with  genuine  country  relish.  The  exercise  in  the 
open  air  for  the  whole  week  which  it  took  us  to  get 
through  this  job  did  us  all  a  vast  amount  of  good. 
Roses  came  into  the  cheeks  of  my  daughters,  to 
which  the  cheeks  aforesaid  had  been  strangers  in  the 
city  ;  and  it  was  the  general  remark  among  us  at 
breakfast,  that  it  had  never  felt  so  good  to  get  to 
bed  the  night  before.  Thus  honest  labor  brought 
wholesome  appetites  and  sound  repose.  Most  of 
us  complained  of  joints  a  little  stiffened  by  so 
much  stooping,   but   an   hour's    exercise  at  more 


64  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

stooping  made  us  limber  for  the  remainder  of 
the  day. 

It  occupied  us  a  whole  week  to  set  out  these  plants, 
for  we  were  all  new  hands  at  the  business.  But  the 
work  was  carefully  done,  and  a  shower  coming  on 
just  as  we  had  finished,  it  settled  the  earth  nicely 
to  the  roots,  and  I  do  not  think  more  than  two  hun- 
dred of  them  died.  I  intended  to  put  a  pinch  of 
guano  compost  or  a  handful  of  poudrette  into  each 
hill,  but  thought  I  could  not  afford  it,  and  so  let 
them  go,  trusting  to  being  able  to  give  them  a  dress- 
ing of  some  kind  of  manure  the  following  spring. 
I  much  regretted  this  omission,  as  I  was  fully  aware 
of  the  great  value  of  the  best  strawberries,  and 
plenty  of  them.  My  wife  thought  at  first  that  six 
acres  was  an  enormous  quantity  to  have — inquired 
if  I  expected  to  feed  the  family  on  strawberries,  and 
whether  it  was  not  worth  while  to  set  about  raising 
some  sugar  to  go  with  them,  feeling  certain  that  a 
great  deal  of  that  would  be  wanted. 

I  forgot  to  say  that  I  had  planted  Wilson's  Albany 
Seedling.  This  was  the  berry  for  which  we  had 
been  compelled  to  pay  such  high  prices  while  living 
in  the  city.  Everybody  testified  to  its  being  the 
most  profuse  bearer,  while  its  great  size  and  hand- 
some shape  made  it  eagerly  sought  after  in  the  mar- 
ket. It  was  admitted,  all  things  considered,  to  be  the 
best  market  berry  then  known.  My  experience  has 
confirmed  this.  True,  it  is  a  little  tarter  than  most 
other  varieties,  and  therefore  requires  more  sugar  to 
make  it  palatable ;  but  this  objection  is  more  theo- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  66 

retical  than  practical,  as  I  always  noticed  that  when 
the  berries  came  upon  the  table,  while  living  in  the 
city,  we  continued  to  pile  on  the  sugar,  no  matter 
what  the  price  or  quantity.  The  berries  were  there, 
and  must  be  eaten. 

On  one  occasion,  on  repeating  this  observation  to 
my  wife,  she  admitted  having  noticed  the  same  re- 
markable fact,  and  added  that  she  believed  straw- 
berries would  continue  to  be  eaten,  even  if  each 
quart  required  a  pound  of  sugar  to  sweeten  it.  She 
declared  that  for  her  part,  she  and  the  children 
intended  to  do  so  in  future. 

Now,  although  she  was  extravagantly  fond  of 
strawberries,  and  had  brought  up  our  children  in  the 
same  faith,  this  threat  did  not  alarm  me,  for  I  knew 
that  hereafter  our  berries  would  cost  me  nothing,  and 
that  if  they  devoured  them  too  freely,  sugar  included, 
a  slight  pain  under  the  apron  of  some  of  them 
would  be  likely  to  moderate  their  infatuation.  I 
then  suggested  to  her,  how  would  it  do — whether  it 
would  not  make  our  establishment  immensely  popu- 
lar— if  in  selling  my  berries,  when  the  crop  came  in 
next  year,  to  announce  to  the  public  that  we  would 
throw  the  sugar  in  ?  She  looked  at  me  a  moment, 
and  must  have  suspected  that  I  was  quizzing  her ; 
for  she  got  up  and  left  the  room,  saying  she  must  go 
into  the  kitchen,  as  she  heard  the  tea-kettle  boiling 
over.  But  though  I  waited  a  full  half  hour,  yet  she 
did  not  return. 

The  reader  may  have  been  all  this  time  watchmg 
the  condition  of  my  purse.    But  he  has  not  been  so 
5 


66  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

observant  as  myself.  These  plants  did  not  cost  me 
cash.  I  had  intended  to  plant  an  acre  or  two  to  be- 
gin with.  But  after  buying  my  peach-trees  and 
raspberries,  the  nurseryman  inquired  if  I  did  not  in- 
tend to  plant  strawberries  also,  as  he  had  a  very 
large  quantity  which  he  would  sell  cheap.  His  say- 
ing that  he  had  a  very  large  lot,  and  that  he  would 
sell  them  cheap,  seemed  to  imply  that  he  found  a 
difficulty  in  disposing  of  them.  Besides,  the  selling 
season  was  pretty  nearly  over.  I  therefore  fought 
shy,  and  merely  inquired  his  terms.  This  led  to  a 
long  colloquy  between  us,  in  the  course  of  which  I 
held  off  just  in  proportion  as  he  became  urgent.  At 
last,  believing  that  I  was  not  disposed  to  buy,  al- 
though I  went  there  for  that  very  purpose,  he  offered 
to  sell  me  60,000  plants  for  $120,  and  to  take  his 
money  out  of  the  proceeds  of  my  first  crop.  This 
offer  I  considered  fair  enough,  much  better  than  I 
expected  ;  and  after  having  distinctly  agreed  that  he 
should  depend  upon  the  crop,  and  not  on  me,  for 
payment,  and  that  if  the  coming  season  yielded  noth- 
ing he  should  wait  for  the  following  one,  I  confessed 
to  him  that  his  persuasions  had  overcome  me,  and 
consented  to  the  bargain. 

In  other  words,  I  did  not  run  in  debt — I  saved 
just  that  much  of  my  capital,  and  could  make 
a  magnificent  beginning  with  our  favorite  fruit. 
As  I  was  leaving  this  liberal  man,  he  observed  to 
me: 

"  Well,  I  am  glad  you  have  taken  this  lot,  as  I  was 
intending  to  plough  them  in  to-morrow." 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  67 

"  How  is  that  ? "  I  inquired,  not  exactly  under- 
standing his  meaning. 

"  Oh,"  said  he,  "  I  have  so  many  now  that  I  must 
have  the  ground  for  other  purposes,  and  so  meant 
to  plough  them  under  if  you  had  not  bought  them." 

This  was  an  entirely  new  wrinkle  to  me,  and  fully 
explained  why  he  could  afford  to  farm  them  out  on 
the  conditions  referred  to.  Though  a  capital  bar- 
gain for  me,  yet  it  was  a  still  better  one  for  him. 
What  he  was  to  receive  was  absolutely  so  much  clear 
gain.  But  then,  after  all  that  has  been  said  and 
written,  is  it  not  a  truth  that  cannot  be  disputed, 
that  no  bargain  can  be  pronounced  a  good  one  unless 
all  the  parties  to  it  are  in  some  way  benefited  ? 

Here,  now,  were  six  acres  of  ground  pretty  well 
crowded  up,  at  least  on  paper.  But  the  strawberries 
would  never  grow  higher  than  six  inches  ;  the  rasp- 
berries would  be  kept  down  to  three  or  four  feet, 
while  the  peaches  would  overtop  all.  Each  would 
be  certain  to  keep  out  of  the  other's  way.  Then  look 
at  the  succession.  The  strawberries  would  be  in 
market  first,  the  raspberries  would  follow,  and  then 
the  peaches,  for  of  the  latter  I  had  planted  the  earli- 
est sorts  ;  so  that,  unlike  a  farm  devoted  wholly  to 
the  raising  of  grain,  which  comes  into  market  only 
once  a  year,  I  should  have  one  cash-producing  crop 
succeeding  to  another  during  most  of  the  summer. 
On  the  remaining  three  acres  I  meant  to  raise  some- 
thing which  would  bring  money  in  the  autumn,  so  as 
to  keep  me  flush  all  the  time.  You  may  say  that 
this  was  reckoning  my  chickens  before  they  were 


68  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

hatched ;  but  you  will  please  remember  that  thus  far 
I  have  not  even  mentioned  chickens,  and  I  pray  that 
you  will  be  equally  considerate.  I  know,  at  least  I 
have  some  indistinct  recollection  of  having  heard  that 
the  proof  of  the  pudding  lay  in  the  eating.  But  pray 
be  patient,  even  credulous,  until  the  aforesaid  myth- 
ical pudding  is  served  up.  I  am  now  cooking  it,  and 
you  ought  all  to  know  that  cooks  must  not  be  hur- 
ried. In  good  time  it  will  come  smoking  on  the 
table. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  69 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

BLACKBERRIES — A   REMARKABLE  COINCIDENCE. 

In  the  course  of  my  agricultural  reading  for  some 
years  previous  to  coming  into  the  country,  I  had  no- 
ticed great  things  said  of  a  new  blackberry  which 
had  been  discovered  in  the  State  of  New  York.  The 
stories  printed  in  relation  to  it  were  almost  fabulous. 
It  was  represented  as  growing  twenty  feet  high,  and 
as  bearing  berries  nearly  as  large  as  a  walnut,  which 
melted  on  the  tongue  with  a  lusciousness  to  which 
the  softest  ice-cream  was  a  mere  circumstance,  while 
the  fruit  was  said  to  be  strung  upon  its  branches  like 
onions  on  a  rope.  A  single  bush  would  supply  a 
large  family  with  fruit !  I  was  amazed  at  the  ex- 
travagant accounts  given  of  its  unexampled  produc- 
tiveness and  matchless  flavor.  I  had  supposed  that  I 
knew  all  about  blackberries,  but  here  was  a  great 
marvel  in  a  department  which  had  been  proverbially 
free  from  eccentricities  of  that  kind. 

But  I  followed  it — in  the  papers — for  a  long  time. 
At  last  I  saw  it  stated  that  the  rare  plant  could  not 
be  propagated  from  the  seed,  but  only  from  suckers, 
and  therefore  very  slowly.  Of  course  it  could  not  be 
afforded  for  less  than  a  dollar  apiece !  It  would  be 
unreasonable  to  look  for  blackberries  for  less  I    It 


70  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

struck  me  that  the  superior  flavor  claimed  for  it  must 
be  a  little  of  the  silvery  order — than  in  berries  bought 
at  that  price,  a  touch  might  be  detected  even  of  the 
most  auriferous  fragrance.  Still,  I  was  an  amateur 
— in  a  small  way.  I  rejoiced  in  a  city  garden  which 
would  readily  accommodate  a  hundred  of  this  extra- 
ordinary berry,  especially  as  it  was  said  to  do  better 
and  bear  more  fruit,  when  cut  down  to  four  feet,  in- 
stead of  being  allowed  to  grow  to  a  height  of 
twenty. 

It  thus  seemed  to  be  made  for  such  miniature  gar- 
deners as  myself.  One  generous  advertiser  offered 
to  send  six  roots  by  mail  for  five  dollars,  provided 
ten  red  stamps  were  inclosed  with  the  money.  I  had 
never  before  heard  of  blackberries  being  sent  by 
mail ;  but  the  whole  thing  was  recommended  by  men 
in  whose  standing  all  confidence  could  be  placed, 
and  who,  as  far  as  could  be  discovered,  had  no  plants 
to  sell.  Tinder  such  circumstances,  doubt  seemed  to 
be  absurd. 

I  sent  five  dollars  and  the  stamps.  But  this  was 
one  of  the  secrets  I  never  told  my  wife  until  she  had 
eaten  the  first  bowlful  of  the  fully  ripened  fruit, 
eighteen  months  afterwards.  Well,  the  plants  came 
in  a  letter — mere  fibres  of  a  greater  root — certainly 
not  thicker  than  a  thin  quill,  not  one  of  them  having 
a  top.  They  looked  like  long  white  worms,  with  here 
and  there  a  bud  or  eye.  I  never  saw,  until  then,  what 
I  considered  the  meanest  five  dollars'  worth  of  any 
thing  I  had  ever  bought ;  and  when  my  wife  inquired 
what  those  things  were  I  was  planting,  I  replied  that 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  71 

they  were  little  vegetable  wonders  which  a  distant 
correspondent  had  sent  me.  Not  dreaming  that  they 
cost  me  near  a  dollar  apiece,  at  the  very  time  I  owed 
a  quarter's  rent,  she  dropped  the  subject. 

But  I  planted  them  in  a  deeply  spaded  and  rich 
sunny  border,  deluged  them  every  week  with  suds 
from  the  family  wash,  and  by  the  close  of  the  season 
they  had  sent  up  more  than  a  dozen  strong  canes 
which  stood  six  feet  high.  The  next  summer  they 
bore  a  crop  of  fruit  which  astonished  me.  From  the 
group  of  bushes  I  picked  fifteen  quarts  of  berries 
superior  to  anything  of  the  kind  we  had  ever  eaten. 
I  then  confided  the  secret  to  my  wife ;  she  considered 
the  plants  cheap  at  five  dollars,  and  pronounced  my 
venture  a  good  one.  I  think  we  had  more  than  five 
dollars'  worth  of  satisfaction  in  showing  them  to  our 
friends  and  neighbors.  We  gave  away  some  pints 
of  the  fruit,  and  such  was  its  fame  and  popularity, 
that  I  feel  convinced  we  could  have  readily  disposed 
of  it  all  in  the  same  way. 

One  of  the  reporters  for  a  penny-paper  hearing  of 
the  matter,  called  in  my  absence  to  see  them.  My 
wife  politely  acted  as  showman,  and  being  very  elo- 
quent of  speech  on  any  matter  which  happens  to 
strike  her  fancy,  she  was  quite  as  communicative  as 
he  desired.  She  did  not  know  that  the  fellow  was  a 
penny-a-liner,  whose  vocation  it  was  to  magnify  an 
ant-hill  into  a  mountain.  To  her  extreme  consterna- 
tion, as  well  as  to  mine,  the  next  morning  paper 
contained  a  half-column  article  describing  my  black- 
berries, even  giving  my  name  and  the  number  of  the 


72  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

house.  By  ten  o'clock  that  day  the  latter  was  run 
down  with  strangers,  who  had  thus  been  publicly  in- 
vited to  call  and  see  the  new  blackberry.  Our 
opposite  neighbors  laughed  heartily  over  my  wife's 
vexation,  and  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  saw  her 
almost  immovable  good  temper  give  way.  The  nui- 
sance continued  for  weeks,  as  the  vile  article  had  been 
copied  into  some  of  the  neighboring  country  papers, 
and  thus  new  swarms  of  bores  were  inflamed  with  cu- 
riosity. This  little  vexatious  circumstance  afforded 
unmistakable  evidence  of  the  great  interest  taken  by 
the  public  in  the  discovery  of  a  new  and  valuable 
fruit.  I  could  have  disposed  of  thousands  of  plants 
if  I  had  had  them  for  sale. 

This  was  the  New  Rochelle  or  Lawton  Blackberry. 
The  numerous  suckers  which  came  up  around  each 
root  I  transplanted  along  my  border,  until  I  had 
more  than  two  hundred  of  them.  This  was  long  be- 
fore a  single  berry  had  been  offered  for  sale  in  the 
Philadelphia  market,  though  the  papers  told  me 
that  the  fruit  was  sellmg  in  New  York  at  half  a 
dollar  per  quart,  and  that  the  great  consuming  pub- 
lic of  that  city,  having  once  tasted  of  it,  was  clamor- 
ous for  more.  I  am  constrained  to  say  that  the 
nurserymen  who  had  these  plants  to  sell  did  not  over 
praise  them.  This  berry  has  fully  realized  all  they 
promised  in  relation  to  it ;  and  a  debt  of  thankful- 
ness is  owing  to  the  men  who  first  discovered 
and  caused  it  to  be  propagated.  It  has  taken  its 
place  in  public  estimation  beside  the  strawberry 
and   raspberry,  and  will    henceforth    continue  to 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  Y3 

be  a  favorite  in  every  market  where  it  may  become 
known. 

This  extraordinary  fruit  was  first  noticed  in  1834, 
by  Mr.  Lewis  A.  Secor,  of  New  Rochelle,  New  York, 
who  observed  a  single  bush  growing  wild  in  an  open 
field,  but  loaded  with  astonishing  clusters  of  larger 
berries  than  he  had  ever  seen,  and  of  superior  rich- 
ness of  flavor.  At  the  proper  season  he  removed  the 
plant  to  his  garden,  where  he  continued  to  propagate 
it  for  several  years,  during  which  time  it  won  the 
unqualified  admiration  of  all  who  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  either  seeing  or  tasting  the  fruit.  Numerous 
plants  were  distributed,  and  its  propagation  in  pri- 
vate gardens  and  nurseries  began.  A  quantity  of 
the  fruit  being  exhibited  at  the  Farmers'  Club,  by 
Mr.  William  Lawton,  the  club  named  it  after  him, 
leaving  the  discoverer  unrecognized. 

Great  sums  of  money  have  been  made  by  propa- 
gators of  this  berry.  It  possesses  peculiar  merits  in 
the  estimation  of  market  gardeners.  It  ripens  just 
as  the  supply  of  strawberries  and  raspberries  has 
been  exhausted,  and  before  peaches  and  grapes  have 
made  their  appearance,  filling  with  delicious  fruit  a 
horticultural  vacuum  which  had  long  existed.  Its 
mammoth  size  and  luscious  qualities  insure  for  it  the 
highest  prices,  and  it  has  steadily  maintained  its 
original  character.  It  pays  the  grower  enormously, 
is  a  sure  bearer,  is  never  touched  by  frost  or  attacked 
by  insect  enemies,  and  when  well  manured  and 
staked  up  from  the  wind,  and  cut  down  to  four  feet 
high,  with  the  limbs  shortened  to  a  foot,  will  readily 


74  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

produce  two  thousand  quarts  to  the  acre.  Some 
growers  have  greatly  exceeded  this  quantity.  I 
have  known  a  single  plant  to  yield  eighteen  hun- 
dred berries,  and  three  plants  to  produce  sixteen 
quarts.  Its  flavor  is  entirely  different  from  that  of 
the  common  wild  blackberry,  while  it  abounds  in 
juice,  and  contains  no  core.  It  is  evidently  a  dis- 
tinct variety.  It  has  also  long  been  famous  for 
yielding  a  most  superior  wine. 

When  I  went  into  the  country  I  had  two  hundred 
of  the  Lawton  blackberry  to  plant,  all  which  were 
the  product  of  my  five-dollar  venture.  In  digging 
them  up  from  my  city  garden,  every  inch  of  root 
that  could  be  found  was  carefully  hunted  out.  They 
had  multiplied  under  ground  to  a  surprising  extent 
— some  of  them  being  as  much  as  twenty  feet  in 
length.  These  roots  were  full  of  buds  from  which 
new  canes  would  spring.  Their  vitality  is  almost 
unconquerable — everybody  knows  a  blackberry  is 
the  hardest  thing  in  the  world  to  kill.  I  cut  off  the 
canes  six  inches  above  the  root,  then  divided  each 
stool  into  separate  roots,  and  then  cutting  up  the 
long  roots  into  slips  containing  one  to  two  eyes  each, 
I  found  my  number  of  sets  to  exceed  a  thousand, 
quite  enough  to  plant  an  acre. 

These  I  put  out  in  rows  eight  feet  apart,  and  eight 
feet  asunder  in  the  rows.  Not  ten  of  them  died,  as 
they  came  fresh  out  of  the  ground  in  one  place,  only 
to  be  immediately  covered  up  some  three  inches  deep 
in  another.  Thus  this  whole  five-dollar  speculation 
was  one  of  the  luckiest  hits  I  ever  made  ;  because  I 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  75 

began  early,  before  the  plant  had  passed  into  every- 
body's hands ;  and  when  it  came  into  general  de- 
mand, I  was  the  only  grower  near  the  city  who  had 
more  than  a  dozen  plants.  Very  soon  everybody 
wanted  the  fruit,  and  the  whole  neighborhood 
wanted  the  plants.  How  I  condescended  to  supply 
both  classes  of  customers  will  appear  hereafter. 

Yet,  while  setting  out  these  roots,  several  of  my 
neighbors,  as  usual  when  I  was  doing  anything, 
came  to  oversee  me.  On  former  occasions  they  had 
expressed  considerable  incredulity  as  to  my  opera- 
tions ;  and  it  was  easy  to  see  from  their  remarks  and 
inquiries  now,  that  they  thought  I  didn't  know 
much,  and  would  have  nothing  for  my  labor  but  my 
pains.  I  always  listened  good-humoredly  to  their 
remarks,  because  I  discovered  that  now  and  then 
they  let  fall  something  which  was  of  real  value  to 
me.  When  they  discovered  it  was  blackberries  I 
was  planting,  some  of  them  laughed  outright.  But 
I  replied  that  this  Lawton  berry  was  a  new  variety, 
superior  to  anything  known,  and  an  incredible 
bearer.  They  answered  me  they  could  find  better 
ones  in  any  fence  corner  in  the  township,  and  that 
if  I  once  got  them  into  my  ground  I  could  never  get 
them  out.  It  struck  me  the  last  remark  would  also 
apply  as  justly  to  my  peach-trees. 

But  I  contented  myself  with  saying  that  I  should 
never  want  to  get  them  out,  and  that  the  time  would 
come  when  they  would  all  want  the  same  thing  in 
their  own  ground.  Thus  it  is  that  pioneers  in  any 
thing  are  generally  ridiculed  and  discouraged  by  the 


76  .TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

general  multitude.  Of  all  my  visitors,  only  two  ap- 
peared to  have  any  correct  knowledge  of  the  new 
plant.  They  offered  to  buy  part  of  my  stock  ;  but 
on  refusing  to  sell,  they  engaged  to  take  some  in  the 
autumn. 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  writing  of  the  Law- 
ton,  because  of  my  singular  success  with  it  from  the 
start.  I  thus  occupied  my  seventh  acre ;  but  the 
rows  being  eight  feet  apart,  abundant  room  was  left 
to  raise  a  crop  of  some  kind  between  them.  Even  in 
the  rows,  between  the  roots,  I  planted  corn,  which 
grew  well,  and  afforded  a  most  beneficial  shade  to 
the  young  blackberries  as  they  grew  up.  I  am  sat- 
isfied they  flourished  better  for  being  thus  pro- 
tected the  first  season  from  the  hot  sun.  When  in 
full  maturity,  they  need  all  the  sun  they  can  get. 
They  will  grow  and  flourish  in  almost  any  soil  in 
which  they  once  become  well  rooted,  though  they 
are  rank  feeders  on  manure.  Like  a  young  pig,  feed 
them  well  and  they  will  grow  to  an  astonishing  size  : 
starve  them,  and  your  crops  will  be  mere  runts.  It 
is  from  the  same  skinning  practice  that  so  many 
corn-cribs  are  seen  to  abound  in  nubbins. 

I  had  thus  two  acres  left  unoccupied ;  one  acre, 
as  previously  stated,  was  most  fortunately  in  clover. 
On  this  I  put  four  bushels  of  ground  plaster  mixed 
with  a  sprinkling  of  guano,  the  two  costing  me  only 
five  dollars.  I  afterwards  devoted  an  acre  to  toma- 
toes, and  the  last  to  parsnips,  cabbages,  turnips,  and 
sweet  corn.  This  latter  was  scattered  in  rows  or 
drills  three  feet  apart,  intending  it  for  green  fodder 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  >77 

for  the  horse  and  cow  when  the  clover  gave  out. 
The  turnips  were  sowed  between  the  corn-rows, 
and  were  intended  for  winter  feeding  for  horse  and 
cow.  On  the  acre  of  blackberries,  between  the  rows, 
I  planted  cabbage,  putting  into  each  hill  a  spoonful 
of  mixed  plaster  and  guano,  and  wherever  I  could 
find  vacant  spots  about  the  place,  there  also  a  cab- 
bage plant  was  set  out.  A  few  pumpkin  hills  were 
started  in  suitable  places.  In  fact,  my  effort  was  to 
occupy  every  inch  of  ground  with  something.  The 
cabbage  and  tomato  plants  cost  me  thirty  dollars. 

These  several  crops  were  put  in  as  the  season  for 
each  one  came  round.  The  green-corn  crop  was 
not  all  put  in  at  one  time,  but  at  intervals  about 
two  weeks  apart,  so  that  I  should  have  a  succession 
of  succulent  food  during  the  summer.  The  horse 
and  cow  were  to  be  kept  in  the  barnyard,  as  I  had 
no  faith  in  turning  cattle  out  to  pasture,  thus  re- 
quiring three  times  as  much  land  as  was  necessary, 
besides  losing  half  the  manure.  The  latter  was  a 
sort  of  hobby  with  me.  I  was  determined  to  give 
my  crops  all  they  could  profitably  appropriate,  and 
so  soil  my  little  stock ;  that  is,  keep  them  in  the 
barnyard  in  summer,  and  in  the  stable  in  winter, 
while  their  food  was  to  be  brought  to  them,  instead 
of  their  being  forced  to  go  after  it.  I  knew  it  would 
cost  time  and  trouble;  but  I  have  long  since  dis- 
covered that  most  things  of  value  in  this  world 
come  to  us  only  as  the  result  of  diligent,  unremitted 
labor.  The  man,  even  upon  ten  acres,  who  is  con- 
tent to  see  around  him  only  barren  fields,  scanty 


78  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

crops,  and  lean,  starving  animals,  does  not  de- 
serve the  name  of  farmer.  Unless  he  can  devise 
ways  and  means  for  changing  such  a  condition 
of  things,  and  cease  ridiculing  all  propositions  of 
amendment  that  may  be  pointed  out  to  him,  he  had 
better  be  up  and  off,  and  give  place  to  a  live  man. 
Such  skinning  and  exhausting  tillage  is  one  cause 
of  the  annual  relative  decline  of  the  wheat- crop  all 
over  the  Union,  and  of  the  frequent  changes  in  the 
ownership  of  lands.  The  fragrance  of  a  fat  and 
ample  manure  heap  is  as  grateful  to  the  nostrils  of 
a  good  farmer,  as  the  fumes  of  the  tavern  are  notori- 
ously attractive  to  those  of  a  poor  one. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  79 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE        GAEDEN FEMALE        MANAGEMENT COMFORTS 

AND    PROFITS. 

I  MENTIONED  soHio  time  ago  that  the  wife  of  the 
former  owner  of  this  place  had  left  it  with  a  world 
of  regrets.  She  had  been  passionately  fond  of  the 
garden  which  now  fell  to  us.  As  daylight  can  be 
seen  through  very  small  holes,  so  little  things  will 
illustrate  a  person's  character.  Indeed,  character 
consists  in  little  acts,  and  honorably  performed; 
daily  life  being  the  quarry  from  which  we  build  it 
up  and  rough-hew  the  habits  that  form  it.  The 
garden  she  had  prepared,  and  cultivated  for  several 
years,  doing  much  of  the  work  of  planting,  watching, 
watering,  and  training  with  her  own  hands,  bore 
honorable  testimony  to  the  goodness  of  hers.  She 
had  filled  it  with  the  choicest  fruit-trees,  most  of 
which  were  now  in  full  bearing.  There  was  abun- 
dance of  all  the  usual  garden  fruits,  currants, 
gooseberries,  grapes,  and  an  ample  asparagus  bed. 
It  was  laid  out  with  taste,  convenience,  and  liberality. 
Flowers,  of  course,  had  not  been  omitted  by  such  a 
woman.  Her  vocation  had  evidently  been  some- 
thing beyond  that  of  merely  cooking  her  husband's 
dinners.  But  her  garden  bore  marks  of  long  aban- 
donment.   Great  weeds  were  rioting  in  the  borders, 


80  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

grass  had  taken  foothold  in  the  alleys,  and  it  stood 
in  need  of  a  new  mistress  to  work  up  into  profitable 
use  the  store  of  riches  it  contained.  It  struck  me 
that  if  one  woman  could  establish  a  garden  like  this? 
I  could  find  another  on  my  own  premises  to  man- 
age it. 

After  I  had  got  through  with  the  various  plant- 
ings of  my  standard  fruits — indeed,  while  much  of 
it  was  going  on — I  took  resolute  hold  of  the  garden. 
It  was  large  enough  to  provide  vegetables  for  three 
families.  I  meant  to  make  it  sure  for  one.  With 
all  the  lights  and  improvements  of  modern  times, 
and  they  are  many,  three-fourths  of  the  farm  gardens 
in  our  country  are  still  a  disgrace  to  our  husbandry. 
As  a  rule,  the  most  easily  raised  vegetables  are  not 
to  be  found  in  them ;  and  the  small  fruits,  with  the 
exception  of  currants  and  gooseberries,  are  uni- 
versally neglected.  Many  of  our  farmers  have 
never  tasted  an  early  York  cabbage.  If  they  get 
cabbages  or  potatoes  by  August,  they  think  they 
are  doing  pretty  well.  They  do  not  understand  the 
simple  mysteries  of  a  hot-bed,  and  so  force  nothing. 
Now,  with  this  article,  which  need  not  cost  five 
dollars,  and  which  a  boy  of  ten  years  can  manage, 
you  can  have  cabbages  and  potatoes  in  June,  and 
beans,  tomatoes,  cucumbers,  and  squashes,  and  a 
host  of  other  delicious  vegetables,  a  little  later. 

By  selecting  your  seed,  you  can  have  salad,  green 
peas,  onions,  and  beets  by  the  last  of  June,  or  before, 
without  any  forcing.  A  good  asparagus  bed,  cover- 
ing two  square  rods  of  ground,  is  a  luxury  that  no 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  81 

farmer  should  be  without.  It  will  give  him  a  palata- 
ble dish,  green  and  succulent  from  the  bosom  of  the 
earth  every  day,  from  May  to  July.  A  good  variety 
of  vegetables  is  within  the  reach  of  every  farmer 
the  year  round.  They  are  not  only  an  important 
means  of  supporting  the  family,  paying  at  least  one- 
half  the  table  expenses,  but  they  are  greatly  con- 
ducive to  health.  They  relieve  the  terrible  monot- 
ony of  salt  junk,  and  in  the  warm  season  prevent 
the  fevers  and  bowel  complaints  so  often  induced  by 
too  much  animal  food. 

Neglect  is  thus  too  much  the  rule.  A  row  of 
currants,  for  example,  is  planted  in  a  garden.  It 
will  indeed  bear  well  with  neglect ;  but  an  annual 
manuring  and  thinning  out  of  old  wood,  would  at 
least  triple  the  size  of  the  fruit,  and  improve  its 
quality.  The  row  of  currants  will  furnish  a  daily 
supply  of  refreshing  fruit  to  the  table  for  months 
together.  Why  should  its  culture  then  be  totally 
neglected,  when  a  row  of  corn  by  its  side  of  equal 
length,  which  will  supply  only  a  single  feeding  to  a 
pen  of  hogs,  is  most  carefully  manured,  watched, 
ploughed,  and  hoed?  I  have  sometimes  seen 
farmers  who,  after  expending  large  sums  in  estab- 
lishing a  young  orchard  of  trees,  would  destroy  one- 
half  by  choking  them  with  a  crop  of  oats  or  clover, 
because  they  could  not  afford  to  lose  the  use  of  the 
small  strip  of  land  a  few  feet  wide  in  the  row,  which 
ought  to  have  been  kept  clean  and  cultivated. 

I  began  by  deepening  the  garden  soil  wherever  a 
spade  could  be  put  in.  I  hired  a  man  for  this  pur- 
6 


82  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

pose,  and  paid  him  ten  dollars  for  the  job,  including 
the  hauling  and  digging  in  of  the  great  pile  of  ma- 
nure I  had  found  in  the  barnyard,  and  the  clearing 
up  of  things  generally.  I  would  have  laid  out  fifty 
dollars  in  manure,  if  the  money  could  have  been 
spared ;  but  what  I  did  afforded  an  excellent  return. 
My  wife  and  eldest  daughter,  Kate,  then  in  her 
eighteenth  year,  did  all  the  planting.  I  spent  five 
dollars  in  buying  for  them  a  complete  outfit  of  hoes, 
rakes,  and  trowels  for  garden  use,  lightly  made  on 
purpose  for  female  handling,  with  a  neat  little 
wheelbarrow  to  hold  the  weeds  and  litter  which  I 
felt  pretty  sure  would  have  to  be  hoed  up  and 
trundled  away  before  the  season  was  over. 

They  took  to  the  garden  manfully.  I  kept  their 
hoes  constantly  sharpened  with  a  file,  and  they  de- 
clared it  was  only  pastime  to  wage  warfare  on  the 
weeds  with  weapons  so  keen.  Now  and  then  one 
of  the  boys  went  in  to  give  them  a  lift ;  and  when  a 
new  vegetable  bed  was  to  be  planted,  it  was  dug  up 
and  made  ready  for  them.  But  the  great  bulk  of 
all  other  work  was  done  by  themselves. 

Never  has  either  of  them  enjoyed  health  so 
robust,  or  appetites  so  wholesome.  As  a  whole 
year's  crop  of  weeds  had  gone  to  seed,  they  had 
millions  of  the  enemy  to  contend  with,  just  as  I  had 
anticipated.  I  did  not  volunteer  discouragements 
by  repeating  to  them  the  old  English  formula,  that 

"  One  year's  seeding 

Makes  seven  years'  weeding," 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  83 

but  commended  their  industry,  exhorted  them  to 
persevere,  and  was  lavish  in  my  admiration  of  the 
handsome  style  in  which  they  kept  the  grounds.  I 
infused  into  their  minds  a  perfect  hatred  of  the 
whole  tribe  of  weeds,  enjoined  it  upon  them  not  to 
let  a  single  one  escape  and  go  to  seed,  and  promised 
them  that  if  they  thus  exterminated  all,  the  next 
year's  weeding  would  be  mere  recreation. 

I  will  say  for  them,  that  all  our  visitors  from  the 
city  were  surprised  at  seeing  the  garden  so  free 
from  weeds,  while  they  did  not  fail  to  notice  that 
most  of  the  vegetables  were  extremely  thrifty. 
They  did  not  know  that  in  gardens  where  the  weeds 
thrive  undisturbed,  the  vegetables  never  do.  As  to 
the  neighbors,  they  came  in  occasionally  to  see  what 
the  women  were  doing,  but  shook  their  heads  when 
they  saw  they  were  merely  hoeing  up  weeds — said 
that  weeds  did  no  harm,  and  they  might  as  well  at- 
tempt to  kill  all  the  flies — they  had  been  brought 
up  among  weeds,  knew  all  about  them,  and  "  it  was 
no  use  trying  to  get  rid  of  them." 

But  the  work  of  weeding  kept  on  through  the 
whole  season,  and  as  a  consequence,  the  ground  about 
the  vegetables  was  kept  constantly  stirred.  The  re- 
sult of  this  thorough  culture  was,  that  nearly  every- 
thing seemed  to  feel  it,  and  the  growth  was  prodi- 
gious, far  exceeding  what  the  family  could  consume. 
We  had  everything  we  needed,  and  in  far  greater 
abundance  than  we  ever  had  in  the  city.  I  am 
satisfied  this  profusion  of  vegetables  lessened  the 
consumption    of    meat    in    the    family  one-half. 


84  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

Indeed,  it  was  such,  that  my  wife  suggested  that 
the  garden  had  so  much  more  in  it  than  we  re- 
quired, that  perhaps  it  would  be  as  well  to  send  the 
surplus  to  the  store  where  we  usually  bought  our 
groceries,  to  be  there  sold  for  our  benefit. 

The  town  within  half  a  mile  of  us  contained  some 
five  thousand  inhabitants,  among  whom  there  was  a 
daily  demand  for  vegetables.  I  took  my  wife's 
advice,  and  from  time  to  time  gathered  such  as  she 
directed,  for  she  and  Kate  were  sole  mistresses  of 
the  garden,  and  sent  them  to  the  store.  They  kept 
a  regular  book  account  of  these  consignments,  and 
when  we  came  to  settle  up  with  the  storekeeper  at 
the  year's  end,  were  surprised  to  find  that  he  had 
eighty  dollars  to  our  credit.  But  this  was  not  all 
from  vegetables — a  good  deal  of  it  came  from  the 
fruit  trees. 

After  using  in  the  family  great  quantities  of 
fine  peaches  from  the  ten  garden-trees,  certainly 
three  times  as  many  as  we  could  ever  afford  to  buy 
when  in  the  city,  the  rest  went  to  the  store.  The 
trees  had  been  so  hackled  by  the  worms  that  they 
did  not  bear  full  crops,  yet  the  yield  was  consider- 
able. Then  there  were  quantities  of  spare  currants, 
gooseberries,  and  several  bushels  of  common  blue 
plums,  which  the  curculio  does  not  sting.  When 
my  wife  discovered  there  was  so  ready  a  market  at 
our  own  door,  she  suffered  nothing  to  go  to  waste. 
It  was  a  new  feature  in  her  experience — everything 
seemed  to  sell.  Whenever  she  needed  a  new  dress 
for  herself  or  any  of  the  children,  all  she  had  to  do 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  85 

was  to  go  to  the  store,  get  it,  and  have  it  charged 
against  her  garden  fund.  I  confess  that  her  success 
greatly  exceeded  my  expectations. 

Let  me  now  put  in  a  word  as  to  the  cause  of  this 
success  with  our  garden.  It  was  not  owing  to  our 
knowledge  of  gardening,  for  we  made  many  blunders 
not  here  recorded,  and  lost  crops  of  two  or  three 
different  things  in  consequence.  Neither  was  it 
owing  to  excessive  richness  of  the  ground.  But  I 
lay  it  to  the  unsparing  warfare  kept  up  upon  the 
weeds,  which  thus  prevented  their  running  away 
with  the  nourishment  intended  for  the  plants,  and 
kept  the  ground  constantly  stirred  up  and  thoroughly 
pulverized.  I  have  sometimes  thought  one  good 
stirring  up,  whether  with  the  hoe,  the  rake,  or  the 
cultivator,  was  as  beneficial  as  a  good  shower. 

When  vegetables  begin  to  look  parched  and  the 
ground  becomes  dry,  some  gardeners  think  they 
must  commence  the  use  of  the  watering-pot.  This 
practice,  to  a  certain  extent,  and  under  some  cir- 
cumstances, may  perhaps  be  proper,  but  as  a  general 
rule  it  is  incorrect.  The  same  time  spent  in  hoeing, 
frequently  stirring  the  earth  about  vegetables,  is  far 
preferable.  When  watering  has  once  commenced  it 
must  be  continued,  must  be  followed  up,  else  you 
have  done  mischief  instead  of  good ;  as,  after  water- 
ing a  few  times,  and  then  omitting  it,  the  ground 
will  bake  harder  than  if  nothing  had  been  done  to 
it.  Not  so  with  hoeing  or  raking.  The  more  you 
stir  the  ground  about  vegetables,  the  better  they  are 
off;  and  whenever  you  stop  hoeing,  no  damage  is 


86  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

done,  as  in  watering.  Vegetables  will  improve 
more  rapidly,  be  more  healthy,  and  in  better  condi- 
tion at  maturity,  by  frequent  hoeing  than  by  fre- 
quent watering.  This  result  is  very  easily  shown 
by  experiment.  Just  notice,  after  a  dewy  night,  the 
difference  between  ground  lately  and  often  stirred, 
and  that  which  has  lain  unmoved  for  a  long  time. 
Or  take  two  cabbage  plants  under  similar  circum- 
stances ;  water  one  and  stir  the  other  just  as  often, 
stirring  the  earth  about  it  carefully  and  thoroughly, 
and  see  which  will  distance  the  other  in  growth. 

There  are  secrets  about  this  stirring  of  the  earth 
which  chemists  and  horticulturists  would  do  well 
to  study  with  the  utmost  scrutiny  and  care.  Soil 
cultivated  in  the  spring,  and  then  neglected,  soon 
settles  together.  The  surface  becomes  hard,  the 
particles  cohere,  they  attract  little  or  no  moisture, 
and  from  such  a  surface  even  the  rain  slides  off,  ap- 
perently  doing  little  good.  But  let  this  surface  be 
thoroughly  pulverized,  though  it  be  done  merely 
with  an  iron  rake,  and  only  a  few  inches  in  depth, 
and  a  new  life  is  infused  into  it.  The  surface  be- 
comes friable  and  soft,  the  moisture  of  the  particles 
again  becomes  active,  attracting  and  being  attracted, 
each  seeming  to  be  crying  to  his  neighbor,  "  Hand 
over,  hand  over — more  drink,  more  drink."  Why 
this  elaboration  should  grow  less  and  less,  till  in  a 
comparatively  short  time  it  should  seem  almost  to 
cease,  is  a  question  of  very  difficult  solution ;  though 
the  varying  compositions  of  soils  has  doubtless  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  matter. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  87 

• 

But  let  the  stirring  be  carefully  repeated,  and  all 
is  life  again.  Particles  attract  moisture  from  the  at- 
mosphere, hand  it  to  each  other,  down  it  goes  to  the 
roots  of  vegetables,  the  little  suction  fibres  drink  it 
in  ;  and  though  we.  cannot  see  these  busy  operations, 
yet  we  perceive  their  healthy  effects  in  the  pushing 
up  of  vegetables  above  the  surface.  The  hoe  is  bet- 
ter than  the  water-pot.  My  garden  is  a  signal  illus- 
tration of  the  fact. 


88  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  X. 

CHEATED  IN  A  COW A  GOOD  AND  A  BAD  ONE THE 

SAINT  OF  THE  BAENYAKD. 

Both  myself  and  wife  had  always  coveted  a  cow. 
All  of  the  family  were  extravagantly  fond  of  milk. 
Where  so  many  children  were  about,  it  seemed  in- 
dispensable to  have  one  ;  besides,  were  we  not  upon 
a  farm  ?  and  what  would  a  farm  be  without  having 
upon  it  at  least  one  saint  of  the  barnyard  ?  As  soon 
as  we  came  on  the  place,  I  made  inquiries  of  two  or 
three  persons  for  a  cow.  The  news  flew  round  the 
neighborhood  with  amazing  rapidity,  and  in  the 
course  of  two  weeks  I  was  besieged  with  offers 
They  haunted  me  in  the  street,  as  I  went  daily  to  the 
post-office ;  even  in  the  evening,  as  we  sat  in  our 
parlor.  It  seemed  as  if  everybody  in  the  township 
had  a  cow  to  sell.  Indeed,  the  annoyance  continued 
long  after  we  had  been  supplied. 

Now,  though  I  knew  a  great  deal  of  milk,  having 
learned  to  like  it  the  very  day  I  was  born,  yet  I  was 
utterly  ignorant  of  how  to  choose  a  cow,  and  at  that 
time  had  no  friend  to  advise  with.  But  I  suspected, 
that  no  one  who  had  a  first-rate  animal  would  vol- 
untarily part  with  it,  and  so  expected  to  be  cheated., 
I  hinted  as  much  to  my  wife,  whereupon  she  begged. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  89 

that  the  choice  might  be  left  to  her ;  to  which  I  par- 
tially consented,  thinking  that  if  we  should  be  im- 
posed on,  I  should  feel  better  if  the  imposition  could 
be  made  chargeable  somewhere  else  than  to  my  own 
ignorance.  Besides,  I  knew  that  she  could  hardly 
be  worse  cheated  than  myself. 

One  morning  a  very  respectable-looking  old  man 
drove  a  cow  up  to  the  door,  and  called  us  out  to  look 
at  her.  My  wife  was  pleased  with  her  looks  the  mo- 
ment she  set  eyes  on  her,  while  the  children  were 
delighted  with  the  calf,  some  two  weeks  old.  I  did 
not  like  her  movements — she  seemed  restless  and  ill- 
tempered  ;  but  the  old  man  said  that  was  always  the 
way  with  cows  at  their  first  calving.  Still,  I  should 
not  have  bought  her.  But  somehow  my  wife  seemed 
bewitched  in  her  favor,  and  was  determined  to  have 
her.  This  the  old  man  could  not  fail  to  notice,  and 
was  loud  in  extolling  her  good  qualities,  declaring 
that  she  would  give  twenty  quarts  of  milk  a  day. 
After  some  further  parley,  he  inadvertently  admitted 
that  she  had  never  been  milked.  My  wife  did  not 
notice  this  striking  discrepancy  of  a  cow  giving 
twenty  quarts  daily,  when  as  yet  no  one  had  ever 
milked  her ;  but  the  lie  was  too  bouncing  a  one  to 
escape  my  notice.  As  I  saw  my  wife  had  set  her 
heart  upon  the  cow,  I  said  nothing,  and  finally  bought 
cow  and  calf  for  thirty  dollars,  though  quite  certain 
they  could  have  been  had  for  five  dollars  less,  if  my 
wife  had  not  so  plainly  shown  to  the  old  sinner  that 
she  was  determined  to  have  them.  I  do  not  think 
she  will  ever  be  up  to  me  in  making  a  bargain. 


90  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

But  as  it  had  been  agreed  that  she  should  choose  a 
cow,  so  she  was  permitted  to  have  her  own  way. 

At  the  end  of  the  week  the  calf  was  sold  for  three 
dollars — a  low  price ;  but  then  my  wife  wanted  the 
milk,  and  she  and  Kate  were  anxious  to  begin 
milking.  I  am  sure  I  was  quite  willing  they  should 
have  all  they  could  get.  When  they  did  begin,  there 
was  a  great  time.  Now,  most  women  profess  to  un- 
derstand precisely  how  a  cow  should  be  milked,  and 
yet  comparatively  few  know  anything  about  it. 
They  remind  me  of  the  Irish  girls  who  are  hunting 
places.  These  are  all  first-rate  cooks,  if  you  take 
their  word  for  it,  and  yet  not  one  in  a  hundred  knows 
anything  of  even  the  first  principles  of  cooking. 

The  first  process  in  the  operation  of  milking  is  to 
fondle  with  the  cow,  make  her  acquaintance,  and 
thus  give  her  to  understand  that  the  man  or  maid 
with  the  milking  pail  approaches  her  with  friendly 
intentions,  in  order  to  relieve  her  of  the  usual  lacteal 
secretion.  It  will  never  do  to  approach  the  animal 
with  combative  feelings  and  intentions.  Should  the 
milker  be  too  impetuous ;  should  he  swear,  speak 
loud  and  sharp,  scold  or  kick,  or  otherwise  abuse  or 
frighten  the  cow,  she  will  probably  prove  refractory 
as  a  mule,  and  may  give  the  uncouth  and  unfeeling 
milker  the  benefit  of  her  heels,— a  very  pertinent 
reward,  to  which  he,  the  uncouth  milker,  is  justly 
entitled.  Especially  in  the  case  of  a  new  milker, 
who  may  be  a  perfect  stranger  to  the  cow,  the  ut- 
most kindness  and  deliberation  are  necessary. 

Before  commencing  to  milk,  a  cow  should  be  fed, 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  91 

or  have  some  kind  of  fodder  offered  her,  in  view  of 
diverting  her  attention  from  the  operation  of  milk- 
ing. By  this  means  the  milk  is  not  held  up,  as  the 
saying  is,  but  is  yielded  freely.  All  these  precau- 
tions are  more  indispensable  when  the  cow  has  just 
been  deprived  of  her  calf.  She  is  then  uneasy,  fret- 
ful and  irritable,  and  generally  so  disconsolate  as  to 
need  the  kindest  treatment  and  the  utmost  sooth- 
ing. The  milker  should  be  in  close  contact  with 
the  cow's  body,  for  in  this  position,  if  she  attempt 
to  kick  him,  he  gets  nothing  more  than  a  push,  where- 
as if  he  sits  off  at  a  distance,  the  cow  has  an  oppor- 
tunity to  inflict  a  severe  blow  whenever  she  feels 
disposed  to  do  so. 

All  milkers  of  cows  should  understand  that  the 
udder  and  teats  are  highly  organized,  and  conse- 
quently very  sensitive ;  and  these  facts  should  be 
taken  into  consideration  by  amateur  milkers,  es- 
pecially when  their  first  essay  is  made  on  a  young 
animal  after  the  advent  of  her  first  calf,  and  that 
one  just  taken  from  her.  At  this  period,  the  hard 
tugging  and  squeezing  to  which  many  poor  dumb 
brutes  have  to  submit  in  consequence  of  the  appli- 
cation of  hard-fisted,  callous,  or  inexperienced  fingers, 
is  a  barbarity  of  the  very  worst  kind ;  for  it  often 
converts  a  docile  creature  into  a  vicious  one,  from 
which  condition  it  is  extremely  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, to  wean  her. 

Of  every  one  of  these  requisites  both  wife  and 
daughter  were  utterly  ignorant.  They  went  talking 
and  laughing  into  the  barn,  one  with  a  bright  tin 


92  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

pail  in  her  hand,  an  object  which  the  cow  had  never 
before  seen,  and  both  made  at  her,  forgetting  that 
they  were  utter  strangers  to  her.  Besides,  she  was 
thinking  of  her  absent  calf,  and  did  not  want  to  see 
anything  else.  Their  appearance  and  clamor  of 
course  frightened  her,  and  as  they  approached  her, 
so  she  avoided  them.  They  followed,  but  she  con- 
tinued to  avoid,  and  once  or  twice  put  down  her 
head,  shook  it  menacingly,  and  even  made  an  incipi- 
ent lunge  at  them  with  her  sharply  pointed  horns. 
These  decided  demonstrations  of  anger  frightened 
them  in  turn,  and  they  forthwith  gave  up  the  pur- 
suit of  milk  in  the  face  of  difficulties  so  unexpected. 
We  got  none  that  night.  In  the  morning  we  sent 
for  an  experienced  milker,  but  she  had  the  utmost 
difficulty  in  getting  the  cow  to  stand  quiet  even  for 
a  moment.  My  wife  was  quite  subdued  about  the 
matter.  It  would  never  do  to  keep  a  cow  that  no- 
body could  milk.  She  said  but  little,  however — it 
was  her  cow.  Longer  trial  produced  no  more  en- 
couraging result,  as  she  seemed  untamable,  and  my 
wife  was  glad  to  have  me  sell  her  for  twenty  dollars, 
at  the  same  time  resolving  never  again  to  buy  a  cow 
with  her  first  calf. 

It  was  voted  unanimously  that  another  should  be 
procured,  and  that  this  time  the  choice  should  be  left 
to  me.  Now,  I  never  had  any  idea  of  buying  poor 
things  of  any  kind  merely  because  they  were  cheap. 
When  purchasing  or  making  tools  or  machinery,  I 
never  bought  or  made  any  but  the  very  best,  as  I 
found  that  even  a  good  workman  could  never  do  a 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  93 

good  job  with  poor  tools.  So  with  all  my  farm  im- 
plements— I  bought  the  best  of  their  kind  that  could 
be  had.  If  my  female  gardeners  had  been  furnished 
with  heavy  and  clumsy  hoes  and  rakes,  because  such 
were  cheap,  their  mere  weight  would  have  disgusted 
them  with  the  business  of  hoeing  and  weeding.  So 
with  a  cow.  It  is  true,  I  had  become  the  owner  of 
a  magnificent  thirty-dollar  horse;  but  it  was  the 
only  beast  I  could  get  hold  of  at  the  moment  when 
a  horse  must  be  had.  Besides,  he  turned  out  to  be 
like  a  singed  cat,  a  vast  deal  better  than  he  looked. 
I  had  repeatedly  heard  of  a  cow  in  the  neighbor- 
ing town,  which  was  said  to  yield  so  much  milk  as 
to  be  the  principal  support  of  a  small  family  whose 
head  was  a  hopeless  drunkard.  She  had  cost  seventy- 
five  dollars,  and  had  been  a  present  to  the  drunk- 
ard's wife  from  one  of  her  relatives.  By  careful 
inquiry,  I  satisfied  myself  that  this  cow  gave  twenty 
quarts  daily,  and  that  five  months  after  calving,  and 
on  very  indifferent  pasture.  I  went  to  see  her,  and 
then  her  owner  told  me  she  was  going  to  leave  the 
place,  and  would  sell  the  cow  for  fifty  dollars.  I  did 
not  hesitate  a  moment,  but  paid  the  money  and  had 
the  cow  brought  home  the  same  evening.  My  wife 
and  daughter  had  not  the  least  difficulty  in  learning 
to  milk  her.  Under  their  treatment  and  my  im- 
proved feeding,  we  kept  her  in  full  flow  for  a  long 
time.  She  gave  quite  as  much  milk  as  two  ordi- 
nary cows,  while  we  had  the  expense  of  keeping 
only  one.  This  I  consider  genuine  good  manage- 
ment :  the  best  is  always  the  cheapest. 


94  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

The  cow  was  never  permitted  to  go  out  of  the 
barnyard.  A  trough  of  water  enabled  her  to  drink 
as  often  as  she  needed,  but  her  green  food  was 
brought  to  her  regularly  three  times  daily,  with 
double  allowance  at  night.  I  began  by  mowing  all 
the  little  grass-plots  about  the  house  and  lanes,  for 
in  these  sheltered  nooks  the  sod  sends  up  a  heavy 
growth  far  in  advance  of  field  or  meadow.  But 
this  supply  was  soon  exhausted,  though  it  lasted 
more  than  a  week :  besides,  these  usually  neglected 
nooks  afforded  several  mowings  during  the  season, 
and  the  repeated  cuttings  produced  the  additional 
advantage  of  maintaining  the  sod  in  beautiful  condi- 
tion, as  well  as  getting  rid  of  numberless  weeds. 
When  the  grass  had  all  been  once  mowed  over,  we 
resorted  to  the  clover.  This  also  was  mowed  and 
taken  to  her ;  and  by  this  treatment  my  little  clover- 
field  held  out  astonishingly.  Long  before  I  had 
gone  over  it  once,  the  portion  first  mowed  was  up 
high  enough  to  be  mowed  again.  Indeed,  we  did 
secure  some  hay  in  addition.  In  this  way  both 
horse  and  cow  were  soiled.  When  the  clover  gave 
out,  the  green  corn  which  I  had  sowed  in  rows  was 
eighteen  inches  to  two  feet  high,  and  in  capital  con- 
dition to  cut  and  feed.  It  then  took  the  place  of 
clover.  Both  horse  and  cow  devoured  it  with  higli 
relish.  It  was  the  extra  sweet  corn  now  so  exten- 
sively cultivated  in  New  Jersey  for  market,  and  con- 
tained an  excess  of  saccharine  matter,  which  made 
it  not  only  very  palatable,  but  which  sensibly  stim- 
ulated the  flow  of  milk. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  95 

The  yield  of  green  food  which  this  description  of 
corn  gives  to  the  acre,  when  thus  sowed,  is  enormous. 
Not  having  weighed  it,  I  cannot  speak  as  to  the  exact 
quantity,  but  should  judge  it  to  be  at  least  seven 
times  that  of  the  best  grass  or  clover.  Even  without 
cutting  up  with  a  straw-knife,  the  pigs  ate  it  with 
equal  avidity.  In  addition  to  this,  the  cow  was  fed 
morning  and  night  with  a  little  bran.  The  uncon- 
sumed  corn,  after  being  dried  where  it  grew,  was  cut 
and  gathered  for  winter  fodder,  and  when  cut  fine 
and  mixed  with  turnips  which  had  been  passed 
through  a  slicer,  kept  the  cow  in  excellent  condition. 
She  of  course  got  many  an  armful  of  cabbage-leaves 
during  the  autumn  and  all  through  the  winter,  with 
now  and  then  a  sprinkling  of  sliced  pumpkins,  from 
which  the  seeds  had  first  been  taken,  as  they  are  sure 
to  diminish  the  flow  of  milk. 

Thus  I  was  obliged  to  lay  out  no  money  for  either 
horse  or  cow,  except  the  few  dollars  expended  for 
bran.  By  this  treatment  I  secured  all  the  manure 
they  made.  By  feeding  the  barnyard  itself,  as  well 
as  the  hog-pen,  with  green  weeds  and  whatever  litter 
and  trash  could  be  gathered  up,  the  end  of  the  sea- 
son found  me  with  a  huge  manure  pile,  all  nicely 
collected  under  a  rough  shed,  out  of  reach  of  drench- 
ing rain,  hot  sun,  and  wasting  winds.  I  certainly 
secured  thrice  as  much  in  one  season  as  had  ever 
been  made  on  that  place  in  three.  In  addition  to 
this,  the  family  had  had  more  milk  than  they  could 
use,  fresh,  rich,  and  buttery.  Even  the  pigs  fell  heir 
to  an  occasional  bucket  of  skim-milk. 


96  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

When  our  city  friends  came  to  spend  a  day  or  two 
with  us,  we  were  able  to  astonish  them  with  a 
tumbler  of  thick  cream,  instead  of  the  usual  staple 
beverages  of  the  tea-table.  My  wife  evidently  felt  a 
sort  of  pride  in  making  a  display  of  this  kind,  and 
Kate  invariably  spread  herself  by  taking  our  visitors 
to  the  barnyard,  to  let  them  see  how  expert  she  had 
become  at  milking.  When  they  remarked,  at  table, 
on  the  surpassing  richness  of  the  cream,  as  well  as 
the  milk,  my  wife  was  very  apt  to  reply — 

"  Yes,  but  when  your  turn  comes  to  go  in  the  coun- 
try, be  particular  not  to  buy  a  cheap  cow." 

This  remark  generally  led  to  inquiry,  and  then 
Kate  was  brought  out  with  the  whole  story  of  our 
first  and  second  cow,  which  she  accordingly  gave 
with  illustrations  infinitely  more  amusing  than  any 
I  have  been  able  to  introduce.  Indeed,  her  power 
of  amplification  sometimes  astonished  me.  She  told 
the  story  of  our  having  been  cheated  by  the  old  sin- 
ner, with  such  graphic  liveliness,  my  wife  now  and 
then  interposing  a  parenthesis,  that  the  company  in- 
variably concluded  it  was  by  far  the  better  policy  to 
give  a  wide  berth  to  cheap  cows.  I  am  not  certain 
whether  the  fun  occasioned  by  Kate's  narratives  was 
not  really  very  cheaply  purchased  by  the  small  loss 
we  suffered  on  that  occasion. 

This  abundance  of  milk  wrought  quite  a  change 
in  our  habits  as  to  tea  and  coffee.  At  supper,  during 
the  summer,  we  drank  milk  only  ;  but  insensibly  we 
ran  on  in  the  same  way  into  cold  weather.  In  the 
end,  we  found  that  we  liked  coffee  in  the  morning 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  97 

only.  This  was  a  clear  saving,  besides  being  quite 
as  wholesome.  Our  city  milk  bill  had  usually  been 
a  dollar  a  week.  I  am  quite  sure  it  did  not  cost  over 
sixty  cents  a  week  to  keep  the  cow.  Then  we  had 
puddings  and  other  dishes,  which  milk  alone  makes 
palatable,  whenever  we  wanted  them;  and  at  any 
time  of  a  hot  summer's  day  a  full  draught  of  cold 
milk  was  always  within  reach.  Then  the  quality 
was  much  superior,  exceeding  anything  to  be  found 
in  city  milk.  I  must  admit  that  keeping  a  cow,  like 
most  other  good  things,  involves  some  trouble  ;  but 
my  family  would  cheerfully  undertake  twice  as 
much  as  they  have  ever  had  with  ours,  rather  than 
dispense  with  this  yet  uncanonized  saint  of  the 
barnyard. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A    CLOUD    OF    WEEDS — GREAT    SALES    OF    PLANTS. 

June  came  without  my  being  obliged  to  hire  any- 
thing but  occasional  help  on  the  farm.  But  when 
the  month  was  fairly  set  in,  I  found  every  inch  of 
my  ploughed  land  in  a  fair  way  of  being  smothered  by 
the  weeds.  I  was  amazed  at  the  countless  numbers 
which  sprang  up,  as  well  as  at  the  rapidity  with 
which  they  grew.  There  was  almost  every  variety 
of  these  pests.  It  seemed  as  if  the  whole  township 
had  concentrated  its  wealth  of  weeds  upon  my  prem- 
ises. In  the  quick,  warm  soil  of  New  Jersey,  they 
appear  to  have  found  a  most  congenial  home,  as  they 
abound  on  every  farm  that  I  have  seen.  Cultivators 
appear  to  have  abandoned  all  hope  of  eradicating 
them.  Knowing  that  the  last  year's  crop  had  gone 
to  seed,  I  confess  to  looking  for  something  of  the 
kind,  but  I  was  wholly  unprepared  for  the  thick 
haze  which  everywhere  covered  the  ground. 

I  can  bear  any  quantity  of  snakes,  but  for  weeds 
I  have  a  sort  of  religious  aversion.  I  tried  one  week 
to  overcome  them  with  the  cultivator,  but  I  made 
discouraging  headway.  I  then  bought  a  regular 
horse-weeder,  which  cut  them  down  rapidly  and 
effectually.     But  meantime  others  were  growing  up 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  99 

in  the  rows,  and  corners,  and  by-places,  where  noth- 
ing but  the  hoe  could  reach  them,  and  robbing  the 
crops  of  their  support.  It  would  never  do  to  cul- 
tivate weeds — they  must  be  got  rid  of  at  any  cost,  or 
my  crops  would  be  worthless.  Several  neighboring 
farmers,  who  had  doubtless  counted  on  this  state  of 
things,  came  along  about  the  time  they  supposed  my 
hands  would  be  full,  looked  over  the  fence  at  my 
courageous  onslaught,  laughed,  and  called  out,  "  It's 
no  use — you  can't  kill  the  weeds ! "  Such  was  the 
sympathy  they  afforded.  If  my  house  had  been  on 
fire,  every  one  of  them  would  have  promptly  hurried 
to  the  rescue ;  but  to  assist  a  man  in  killing  his 
weeds  was  what  no  one  dreamed  of  doing.  He 
didn't  kill  his  own. 

In  this  dilemma  I  was  forced  to  hire  a  young 
man  to  help  me,  contracting  to  give  him  twelve 
dollars  a  month  and  board  him.  He  turned  out 
sober  and  industrious.  We  went  to  work  courage- 
ously on  the  weeds.  I  will  admit  that  my  man 
Dick  was  quite  as  certain  as  my  neighbors  that  we 
could  never  get  permanently  ahead  of  them,  and 
that  thus  lacking  faith  he  took  hold  of  the  culti- 
vator and  weeder,  while  I  attacked  the  enemy  in  the 
rows  and  by-places.  I  kept  him  constantly  at  it,  and 
worked  steadily  myself.  A  week's  labor  left  a  most 
encouraging  mark  upon  the  ground.  The  hot  sun 
wilted  and  dried  up  the  weeds  as  we  cut  them  off. 
Two  weeks  enabled  us  to  get  over  the  whole  lot, 
making  it  look  clean  and  nice.  I  congratulated 
myself  on  our  success,  and  inquired  of  Dick  if  he 


100  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

didn't  think  we  had  got  ahead  of  the  enemy  now. 
This  was  on  a  Saturday  evening.  Dick  looked  up 
at  the  sky,  which  was  then  black  and  showery,  with 
a  warm  south  wind  blowing,  and  a  broad  laugh 
came  over  his  features  as  he  replied,  "  This  will  do 
till  next  time."  The  fellow  was  evidently  unwilling 
to  encourage  or  to  disappoint  me. 

That  night  a  powerful  rain  fell,  with  a  warm, 
sultry  wind,  being  what  farmers  call  "growing 
weather."  I  found  it  to  be  even  so,  good  for  weeds 
at  least.  Monday  morning  came  with  a  hot,  clear 
sun,  and,  under  the  combined  stimulating  power  of 
sun,  rain,  and  temperature,  I  found  that  in  two 
nights  a  new  generation  had  started  into  line,  quite 
as  numerous  as  that  we  had  just  overcome.  As  I 
walked  over  the  ground  in  company  with  Dick,  I 
was  confounded  at  the  sight.  But  I  noticed  that 
he  expressed  no  astonishment  whatever — it  was  just 
what  he  knew  was  to  come — and  so  he  declared  it 
would  be  if  we  made  the  ground  as  clean  as  a  parlor 
every  week. 

He  said  he  never  knew  the  weeds  to  be  got  out  of 
Jersey  ground,  and  protested  that  it  couldn't  be 
done.  He  admitted  that  they  were  nuisances,  but 
so  were  mosquitoes.  But  as  neither,  in  his  opinion, 
did  any  great  harm,  so  he  thought  it  not  worth 
while  to  spend  much  time  or  money  in  endeavoring 
to  get  rid  of  them.  In  either  case  he  considered 
the  attempt  a  vain  one,  and  this  was  the  whole 
extent  of  his  philosophy.  He  had  in  fact  been  edu- 
cated to  believe  in  weeds.    I  was  mortified  at  his 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  JQl 

indifference,  for  I  had  labored  to  infuse  into  his 
mind  the  same  hatred  of  the  tribe  with  which  my 
wife  and  Kate  had  been  so  happily  inoculated.  But 
Dick  was  proof  against  inoculation — his  system 
repudiated  it. 

But  it  set  me  to  thinking.  As  to  defining  what  a 
weed  was,  I  did  not  undertake  that,  beyond  pro- 
nouncing it  to  be  a  plant  growing  out  of  its  proper 
place.  Neither  did  I  undertake  to  settle  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  endless  variety  there  seemed  to  be  of 
these  pests,  nor  by  what  unaccountable  agency  they 
had  become  so  thoroughly  diffused  over  the  earth. 
I  could  not  fail  to  admit,  however,  that  it  seemed, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  that  whenever  man  ceased 
to  till  the  ground  and  cover  it  with  cultivated  crops, 
at  his  almighty  command  there  sprang  up  a  profuse 
vegetation  with  which  to  clothe  its  nakedness. 
While  man  might  be  idle,  it  was  impossible  for 
nature  to  be  so — the  earth  could  not  lie  barren  of 
everything.  But  it  seemed  to  me  impossible  that 
these  ten  acres  of  mine  could  contain  an  absolutely 
indefinite  number  of  seeds  of  these  unwelcome 
plants.  There  must  be  some  limitation  of  the 
number.  At  what  figure  did  it  stop  ?  Was  it  one 
million,  or  a  hundred  millions  ?  Neither  Dick  nor 
myself  could  answer  this  question. 

Yet  I  came  resolutely  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
must  be  a  limitation,  and  that  if  we  could  induce  all 
the  seeds  contained  in  the  soil  to  vegetate,  and  then 
destroy  the  plants  before  they  matured  a  new  crop, 
we  should  ever  afterwards  be  excused  from  such 


102  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

constant  labor  as  we  had  gone  through,  and  as  was 
likely  to  be  our  experience  in  the  future.  I  submit- 
ted this  proposition  to  Dick — that  if  we  killed  all 
the  weeds  as  they  grew,  the  time  would  come  when 
there  would  be  no  weeds  to  kill.  It  struck  me  as 
being  so  simple  that  even  Dick,  with  all  his  dogged- 
ness,  could  neither  fail  to  comprehend  nor  acknowl- 
edge it.  He  did  manage  to  comprehend  it,  but  as 
to  acknowledging  its  force,  one  might  have  have 
argued  with  him  for  a  month.  He  utterly  denied 
the  premises — he  had  no  faith  in  our  Jersey  weeds 
ever  being  killed,  no  matter  how  much  luck  we  had 
thus  far  had  with  them,  and  I  would  see  that  he 
was  right. 

But  having  originated  the  dogma,  I  fully  believed 
in  it,  and  felt  bound  to  maintain  it ;  so  Dick  and  I 
went  resolutely  to  work  a  second  time,  as  soon  as 
the  new  crop  was  well  out  of  the  ground.  The 
labor  was  certainly  not  as  great  as  on  the  first  crop, 
but  it  was  hot  work.  I  carried  a  file  in  my  pocket, 
and  kept  my  hoe  as  sharp  as  I  have  always  kept  my 
carving  knife,  and  taught  Dick  to  put  his  horse- 
weeder  in  prime  order  every  evening  when  we  had 
quit  work.  The  perspiration  ran  in  a  stream  from 
me  in  the  hot  sun,  and  a  few  blisters  rose  on  my 
hands,  but  my  appetite  was  rampant,  and  never 
have  my  slumbers  been  so  undisturbed  and 
peaceful. 

About  the  third  week  in  June  we  got  through  the 
second  cleaning,  and  then  rested.  From  that  time 
to  the  end  of  the  first  week  in  July  there  had  been 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  103 

no  rain,  with  a  powerfully  hot  sun.  During  this 
interval  the  weeds  grew  again,  and  entirely  new 
generations,  some  few  of  the  first  varieties,  but  the 
remainder  being  new  sorts.  Thus  there  were  wet- 
weather  weeds  and  dry- weather  weeds ;  and  as  I 
afterwards  found,  there  was  a  regular  succession  of 
varieties  from  spring  to  winter,  and  even  into 
December — cold-weather  weeds  as  well  as  hot- 
weather  weeds.  Against  each  new  army  as  it 
showed  itself  an  onslaught  was  to  be  made.  I  was 
persuaded  in  my  mind  that  the  same  army  which 
we  killed  this  year  cduld  not  show  itself  the  next, 
and  that  therefore  there  ought  to  be  that  number 
less.    But  Dick  could  not  see  this. 

I  observed,  moreover,  that  each  variety  had  its 
particular  period  when  it  vegetated,  so  that  it 
might  have  time  to  get  ahead  and  keep  out  of  the 
way  of  its  successor.  It  was  evident  that  the  seeds 
of  any  one  kind  did  not  all  vegetate  the  same  sea- 
son. Herein  was  a  wonderful  provision  of  Provi- 
dence to  insure  the  perpetuity  of  all ;  for  if  all  the 
rag- weed,  for  instance,  had  vegetated  the  first  sea- 
son of  my  experience,  they  would  assuredly  have 
been  killed.  But  multitudes  remained  dormant  in 
the  earth,  as  if  thus  stored  up  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
pairing, another  year,  the  casualties  which  their 
forerunners  had  encountered  during  the  present 
one.  Thus  no  one  weed  can  be  extirpated  in  a  sin- 
gle season;  neither  do  we  have  the  whole  cata- 
logue to  attack  at  the  same  time. 

My   warfare  against  the  enemy   continued  un- 


104  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

abated.  As  the  time  came  for  each  new  variety  to 
show  itself,  so  we  took  it  in  hand  with  hoe  and 
weeder.  Dick  and  his  horse  made  such  admirable 
progress,  that  I  cannot  refrain  from  recommending 
this  most  efficient  tool  to  the  notice  of  every  culti- 
vator. With  one  man  and  a  horse  it  will  do  the 
work  of  six  men,  cutting  off  the  weeds  just  below 
the  ground  and  leaving  them  to  wilt  on  the  surface. 
It  costs  but  six  dollars,  and  can  be  had  in  all  the 
cities.  It  would  have  cost  me  a  hundred  dollars  to 
do  the  same  amount  of  work  with  the  hoe,  which 
this  implement  did  within  four  weeks. 

Thus  aided,  our  labors  extended  clear  into  Novem- 
ber. In  the  intervals  between  the  different  growths 
of  weeds,  we  looked  after  the  other  crops.  But 
when  the  winter  closed  in  upon  us,  the  whole  ground 
was  so  thoroughly  cleaned  of  them  as  to  be  the  ad- 
miration of  the  jeerers  and  croaker^  who,  early  in 
the  season,  had  pitied  my  enthusiasm  or  ridiculed 
my  anticipations.  Even  Dick  was  somewhat  sub- 
dued and  doubtful.  I  do  not  think  a  single  weed 
escaped  our  notice,  and  went  to  seed  that  season. 

I  saw  this  year  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the  idea 
that  there  are  specific  manures  for  certain  plants. 
I  can  hardly  doubt  that  each  has  its  specific  favorite, 
and  that  if  cultivators  could  discover  what  that 
favorite  is,  our  crops  might  be  indefinitely  increased. 
On  a  piece  of  ground  which  had  been  sowed  with 
turnips,  on  which  guano  had  previously  been  sprin- 
kled during  a  gentle  rain,  there  sprang  up  the  most 
marvellous  growth  of  purslane  that  ever  met  one's 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  105 

eyes.  The  whole  ground  was  covered  with  the 
rankest  growth  of  this  weed  that  could  be  imagined. 
Every  turnip  was  smothered  out.  It  seemed  as  if 
the  dormant  purslane-seed  had  been  instantly  called 
into  life  by  the  touch  of  the  guano.  It  was  singu- 
lar, too,  that  we  had  noticed  no  purslane  growing  on 
that  particular  spot  previous  to  the  application  of 
this  rapidly-acting  fertilizer. 

I  confess  the  sight  of  a  dense  carpet  of  purslane 
instead  of  a  crop  of  turnips,  almost  staggered  me  as 
to  the  correctness  of  my  theory  that  the  number  of 
seeds  in  the  ground,  yet  to  vegetate,  must  some- 
where have  a  limit.  Here  were  evidently  millions 
of  a  kind  which,  up  to  this  time,  had  not  even 
shown  themselves.  After  allowing  the  purslane  to 
grow  two  weeks,  Dick  cut  it  off  with  his  horse- 
weeder,  raked  it  up,  and  carried  it  to  the  pigs,  who 
consumed  it  with  avidity.  We  then  recultivated  the 
ground  and  sowed  again  with  turnips  ;  but  the 
yield  was  very  poor.  Either  the  purslane  had  ap- 
propriated the  whole  energy  of  the  guano,  or  the 
sowing  was  too  late  in  the  season. 

But  this  little  incident  will  illustrate  the  value  of 
observation  to  a  farmer.  Book-farming  is  a  good 
thing  in  its  place,  but  observation  is  equally  instruc- 
tive. The  former  is  not  sufficient,  of  itself,  to  make 
good  tillers  of  the  soil.  It  will  not  answer  in  place 
of  attentive  observation.  It  forms,  indeed,  but  the 
poorest  kind  of  a  substitute  for  that  habit  which 
every  farmer  should  cultivate,  of  going  all  over 
his    premises    daily  during  the    growing    season. 


106  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

and  noticing  the  peculiarities  of  particular  plants ; 
the  habits  of  destructive  animals  or  insects;  the 
depredations  as  well  as  the  services  of  birds ;  the 
when,  the  how,  and  the  apparent  wherefore  of  the 
germination  of  seeds ;  the  growth  of  the  stem,  the 
vine,  or  the  stalk  that  proceeds  from  them,  and  the 
formation,  growth,  and  ripening  of  the  fruit  which 
they  bear.  Let  no  farmer,  fruit-grower,  or  gar- 
dener, neglect  observation  for  an  exclusive  reliance 
on  book-farming. 

It  would  be  a  most  erroneous  conclusion  for  the 
reader  to  suppose  that  all  this  long-continued  labor 
in  keeping  the  ground  clear  of  weeds  was  so  much 
labor  thrown  away.  On  the  contrary,  even  apart 
from  ridding  the  soil  of  so  many  nuisances,  so  many 
robbers  of  the  nourishment  provided  for  useful 
plants,  it  kept  the  land  in  the  most  admirable  condi- 
tion. The  good  conferred  upon  the  garden  by  hoeing 
and  raking,  was  re-enacted  here.  Everything  I  had 
planted  grew  with  surprising  luxuriance.  I  do 
think  it  was  an  illustration  of  the  value  of  thorough 
culture,  made  so  manifest  that  no  one  could  fail  to 
observe  it.  It  abundantly  repaid  me  for  all  my 
watchfulness  and  care.  Dick  was  forced  to  ac- 
knowledge that  he  had  seen  no  such  clean  work 
done  in  that  part  of  New  Jersey. 

My  nurseryman  came  along  at  the  end  of  the  sea- 
son, to  see  how  I  had  fared,  and  walked  deliberately 
over  the  ground  with  me,  examining  the  peach- 
trees.  He  said  he  had  never  seen  young  trees 
grow  more  vigorously.     Not  one  of  them  had  died. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  107 

The  raspberries  had  not  grown  so  much  as  he  ex- 
pected, but  the  strawberry-rows  were  now  filled 
with  plants.  As  runners  were  thrown  out,  I  had 
carefully  trained  them  in  line  with  the  parent 
stools,  not  permitting  them  to  sprawl  right  and  left 
over  a  great  surface,  forming  a  mass  that  could  not 
be  weeded,  even  by  hand.  This  he  did  not  ap- 
prove of.  He  said  by  letting  them  spread  out 
right  and  left  the  crop  of  fruit  would  be  much 
greater,  but  admitted  that  the  size  of  the  berries 
would  be  much  smaller.  But  he  contended  that 
quantity  was  what  the  public  wanted,  and  that  they 
did  not  care  so  much  for  quality.  Yet  he  could  not 
explain  the  damaging  fact  that  the  largest  sized 
fruit  was  always  the  most  eagerly  sought  after,  and 
invariably  commanded  the  highest  price.  Though 
he  did  not  approve  of  my  mode  of  cultivation,  yet  he 
could  not  convince  me  that  I  had  made  a  mistake. 

From  these  we  walked  over  to  the  blackberries. 
They,  too,  had  grown  finely  under  my  thorough 
culture  of  the  ground.  Besides  sending  up  good 
canes  which  promised  a  fair  crop  the  next  season, 
each  root  had  sent  up  several  suckers,  some  of  them 
several  feet  away,  and  out  of  the  line  of  the  row. 
These  I  had  intended  to  sell,  and  had  preserved  as 
many  as  possible,  knowing  there  would  be  a  demand 
for  all.  The  interest  in  the  new  berry  had  rapidly 
extended  all  round  among  my  neighbors,  and  I  very 
soon  discovered  that  my  nurseryman  wanted  to  buy. 
In  fact,  I  believe  he  came  more  for  that  purpose  than 
to  see  how  I  was  doing.     But  I  talked  offish — spoke 


108  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH^ 

of  having  engaged  two  or  three  lots,  and  could 
hardly  speak  with  certainty.  Finally,  he  offered  to 
give  me  a  receipt  for  the  $120  he  was  to  receive  out 
of  the  strawberries  he  had  sold  me,  and  pay  me  $100 
down,  for  a  thousand  blackberry  plants.  Though  I 
felt  pretty  sure  I  could  do  better,  yet  I  closed  with 
him.  As  he  had  evidently  come  prepared  with 
money  to  clinch  some  sort  of  bargain,  he  produced  it 
and  paid  me  on  the  spot.  He  afterwards  retailed 
nearly  all  of  the  plants  for  a  much  larger  sum.  But 
it  was  a  good  bargain  for  both  of  us.  It  paid  me 
well,  and  was  all  clear  profit. 

I  may  add  that  these  blackberry  roots  came  into 
more  active  demand  from  that  time  until  the  next 
spring ;  and  when  spring  opened,  more  suckers  came 
up,  as  if  knowing  they  were  wanted.  These,  with 
my  previous  stock,  amounted  to  a  large  number.  A 
seed  man  in  the  city  advertised  them  for  sale,  and 
took  retail  orders  for  me.  His  sales,  with  my  own, 
absorbed  every  root  I  could  spare.  When  they  had 
all  been  disposed  of,  and  my  receipts  were  footed 
up,  I  found  that  they  amounted  to  four  hundred  and 
sixty  dollars,  leaving  me  three  hundred  and  forty 
dollars  clear,  after  paying  for  my  strawberry  plants. 

This  was  far  better  than  I  had  anticipated.  It 
may  sound  curiously  now,  when  the  plants  can  be 
had  so  cheaply,  but  it  is  a  true  picture  of  the  market 
at  the  time  of  which  I  write.  It  is  the  great  profit 
to  be  realized  from  the  sale  of  new  plants  that  stim- 
ulates their  cultivation.  Many  men  have  made  for- 
tunes from  the  sale  of  a  new  fruit  or  flower,  and 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  109 

others  are  repeating  the  operation  now.  In  fact,  it 
is  the  hope  of  this  great  gain  that  has  given  to  the 
world  so  many  new  and  valuable  plants,  some  origi- 
nated from  seed,  some  by  hybridization,  some  from 
solitary  hiding-places  in  the  woods  and  mountains, 
and  some  by  importation  from  distant  countries. 
Success  in  one  thing  stimulates  to  exertion  for  an- 
other, and  thus  the  race  of  a  vast  and  intelligent 
competition  is  maintained.  But  the  public  is  the 
greatest  gainer  after  all. 

My  profits  from  this  source,  the  first  year,  may  by 
some  be  regarded  as  an  exceptional  thing,  to  be  real- 
ized only  by  the  fortunate  few,  and  not  to  be  regu- 
larly counted  on.  But  this  is  not  the  case.  There 
are  thousands  of  cultivators  who  are  constantly  in 
the  market  as  purchasers.  If  it  were  not  so,  the  vast 
nursery  establishments  which  exist  all  over  the  coun- 
try could  not  be  maintained.  Every  fruit-grower, 
like  myself,  has  been  compelled  to  buy  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  operations  ;  but  his  turn  for  selling  has 
invariably  come  round.  As  a  general  rule,  whatever 
outlay  a  beginner  makes  in  supplying  himself  with 
the  smaller  fruits,  is  afterwards  reimbursed  from  the 
sale  of  surplus  plants  he  does  not  need.  This  sale 
occurs  annually,  and  in  time  will  far  exceed  his  origi- 
nal outlay. 

If  the  plants  be  rare  in  the  market,  and  if  he 
should  have  gone  into  the  propagation  at  a  very  early 
day,  before  prices  have  found  their  lowest  level,  his 
profits  will  be  the  larger.  Hence  the  utmost  watch- 
fulness of  the  market  should  be  maintained.    New 


110  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

plants,  better  breeds  of  animals,  and  in  fact  every 
improvement  connected  with  agriculture,  if  judi- 
ciously adopted  at  the  earliest  moment,  will  gener- 
ally be  found  to  pay,  even  after  allowing  for  losses 
on  the  numerous  cheats  which  are  continually  turn- 
ing up. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  m 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PIGS  AND  POULTRY LUCK  AND  ILL  LUCK. 

Very  early  after  taking  possession,  I  invested 
twelve  dollars  in  the  purchase  of  seven  pigs  of  the 
ordinary  country  breed.  They  were  wanted  to  eat 
the  many  odds  and  ends  which  are  yielded  by  ten 
acres,  a  good  garden,  and  the  kitchen.  I  did  not 
look  for  much  money  profit  from  them,  but  I  knew 
they  were  great  as  architects  in  building  up  a  manure 
heap.  Yet  they  were  capital  things  with  which  to 
pack  a  meat-tub  at  Christmas,  saving  money  from 
the  butcher,  as  well  as  much  running  abroad  to 
market.  They  shared  with  the  cow  in  the  abundant 
trimmings  and  surplus  from  the  garden,  eating  many 
things  which  she  rejected,  and  appropriating  all  the 
slop  from  the  kitchen.  In  addition  to  this,  we  fed 
them  twice  a  day  with  boiled  bran,  sometimes  with 
a  handful  of  corn  meal,  but  never  upon  whole  corn. 
This  cooking  of  the  food  was  no  great  trouble  in  the 
kitchen,  but  its  effect  on  the  pigs  was  most  beneficial. 
They  grew  finely,  except  one  which  died  after  four 
months'  feeding,  but  from  what  cause  could  not  be 
ascertained. 

The  consequence  was,  that  when  October  came 
round,  the  six  remaining  ones  were  estimated  by 


112  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

Dick  to  average  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
each,  and  were  in  prime  condition  for  fattening.  In 
the  early  part  of  that  month  their  supply  of  cooked 
mush  was  increased.  I  am  of  opinion  that  farmers 
leave  the  fattening  of  their  hogs  too  late,  and  that  a 
month  on  corn,  before  December,  is  worth  three 
months  after  it.  By  the  tenth  of  December  they 
were  ready  for  the  butcher,  and  on  being  killed, 
were  found  to  average  two  hundred  and  twenty-four 
pounds,  or  nine  hundred  and  forty-four  in  all.  This 
being  three  times  as  much  as  we  needed  for  home 
use,  the  remainder  was  sent  to  the  store,  where  it 
netted  me  forty-nine  dollars. 

I  am  quite  certain  there  was  a  profit  on  these 
pigs.  They  consumed  quantities  of  refuse  toma- 
toes, and  devoured  parsnips  with  the  greatest 
eagerness.  One  day  I  directed  Dick  to  cut  up  some 
stalks  of  our  green  sweet  corn,  by  means  of  the 
fodder-cutter,  which  delivers  them  in  pieces  half  an 
inch  long,  and  mix  them  with  bran  for  the  pigs.  I 
found  they  consumed  it  with  great  avidity.  Ever 
after  that  they  were  served  twice  daily  with  the 
same  mess.  It  seemed  to  take  the  place  of  stronger 
food,  as  well  as  of  grass,  and  was  an  acceptable 
variety.  In  this  way  the  money  cost  of  food  was 
kept  at  a  low  figure,  and  the  labor  we  spent  on  the 
pigs  showed  itself  in  the  fine  yield  of  prime  pork, 
which  brought  the  highest  price  in  the  market. 
The  yield  of  rich  manure  was  also  very  satisfactory, 
all  which,  at  intervals  through  the  season,  was 
removed  from  the  pen  and  put  under  cover,  for 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  II3 

manure  thus  housed  from  the  sun  and  rain  is  worth 
about  double  that  which  is  exposed  all  the  year 
round.  This  was  another  item  of  profit :  if  the 
pigs  had  not  manufactured  it,  money  would  have 
been  required  to  pay  for  its  equivalent. 

After  these  six  had  been  killed,  I  purchased  seven 
others,  some  two  months  old,  having  abundance  of 
roots,  offal  cabbages,  and  a  stack  of  the  sweet-corn 
fodder  on  hand.  These  seven  cost  the  same  as  the 
others,  twelve  dollars.  As  Dick  was  found  to  be  a 
good,  trustworthy  fellow,  he  was  to  be  kept  all  the 
year  round ;  and  as  he  would  be  hanging  about  the 
barnyard  during  the  winter,  when  the  ground  was 
wet  and  sloppy,  looking  after  the  horse  and  cow> 
the  pigs  would  help  to  fill  up  his  time.  The  cook- 
ing of  food  for  both  cow  and  pigs  was  a  great 
novelty  to  him.  At  first  he  could  not  be  made  to 
believe  in  it.  When  I  ventured  to  insinuate  to  him 
that  it  would  be  anything  but  agreeable  to  him  to 
eat  his  dinners  raw,  the  force  of  the  idea  did  not 
strike  him.  So  much  is  there  in  the  power  of  long- 
established  habit.  Yet  he  did  condescend  to  admit 
that  he  knew  all  pigs  throve  better  on  plenty  of 
common  kitchen-swill  than  on  almost  anything 
else.  I  told  him  there  was  but  one  reason  for  this, 
and  that  was  because  all  such  swill  had  been  cooked. 
When  the  improvement  made  by  the  first  lot  of 
pigs  became  too  manifest  for  even  him  to  dispute, 
he,  together  with  the  pigs,  acknowledged  the  corn 
and  gave  in. 

When  out-door  operations  for  the  season  were 
8 


114  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

over,  Dick  undertook  the  whole  business  of  cooking 
for  the  pigs  and  cow  himself.  In  fact,  on  one  occa- 
sion I  succeeded  in  getting  him  to  curry  down  both 
cow  and  pigs.  They  all  looked  and  showed  so  much 
better  for  near  a  week  thereafter,  that  coming  on 
him  unexpectedly  one  day,  I  found  him  repeating 
the  operation  of  his  own  motion,  and  so  he  volun- 
tarily continued  the  practice  during  the  whole 
winter.  The  pigs  seemed  delighted  with  the  pro- 
cess, and  had  very  little  scratching  of  their  own  to 
do.  Their  backs  and  sides  were  kept  continually 
smooth,  while  their  whole  appearance  was  changed 
for  the  better.  As  to  the  cow,  she  took  to  being 
curried  with  the  best  possible  grace,  and  improved 
under  it  as  much  as  the  pigs ;  but  whether  it  in- 
creased the  flow  of  milk  I  cannot  say,  as  no  means 
were  taken  to  solve  that  question.  But  as  Dick's 
devotion  to  the  currycomb  excited  my  admiration, 
so  there  was  abundant  evidence  that  both  pigs  and 
cow  were  equally  captivated. 

This  business  of  raising  and  carefully  attending 
to  only  half  a  dozen  hogs,  is  worthy  of  every  small 
farmer's  serious  study  and  attention.  The  hog  and 
his  food,  with  what  is  cheapest  and  best  for  him,  is 
really  one  of  the  sciences,  not  an  exact  one,  it  is 
true,  but  still  a  science.  One  must  look  at  and 
study  many  things,  and  they  can  all  be  made  to  pay. 
The  propensity  to  acquire  fat  in  many  animals 
seems  to  have  been  implanted  by  nature.  The  hog 
fattens  most  rapidly  in  such  a  condition  of  the  at- 
mosphere as  is  most  congenial  to  his  comfort — not 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  115 

too  hot,  nor  too  cold.  Hence  the  months  of  Septem- 
ber, October,  and  November  are  the  best  for  making 
pork.  The  more  agreeable  the  weather,  the  less  is 
the  amount  of  food  required  to  supply  the  waste  of 
life.  It  has  been  found  by  some  persons  that  a 
clover  field  is  the  best  and  cheapest  place  to  keep 
hogs  in  during  the  spring  and  summer  months, 
where  they  have  a  plenty  of  water,  the  slop  from  the 
house,  and  the  sour  milk  from  the  dairy.  All 
sour  feed  contains  more  nitrogen  than  when  fed  in 
a  sweet  state.  The  first  green  herbage  of  the  spring 
works  off  the  impurities  of  the  blood,  cleanses  the 
system,  renovates  the  constitution,  and  enables  the 
animal  to  accumulate  a  store  of  strength  to  carry  it 
forward  to  its  destined  course. 

Many  object  to  beginning  the  fattening  process  so 
early  in  the  season,  as  the  corn  relied  on  for  that 
purpose  is  not  then  fully  matured.  But,  taking  all 
things  into  consideration,  it  is  perhaps  better  to  feed 
corn  before  it  is  ripe,  as  in  that  state  it  possesses 
more  sweetness.  Most  varieties  are  in  milk  in  Sep- 
tember, when  the  hogs  will  chew  it,  swallow  the 
juice,  and  eject  the  dry,  fibrous  matter.  During  the 
growing  season  of  the  year,  swine  can  be  fed  on 
articles  not  readily  marketable,  as  imperfect  fruit, 
vegetables,  etc.  When  such  articles  are  used,  cook- 
ing them  is  always  economical.  Most  vegetables, 
when  boiled  or  steamed,  and  mixed  with  only  an 
eighth  of  their  bulk  of  mill-feed  or  meal,  whey,  and 
milk  left  to  sour,  will  fatten  hogs  fast.  In  this  state 
they  will  eat  it  with  avidity,  and  derive  more  benefit 


116  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

from  it  than  when  fed  in  an  unfermented  state. 
Articles  of  a  perishable  nature  should  be  used  first, 
to  prevent  waste,  as  it  is  desirable  to  turn  all  the 
products  of  the  farm  to  the  best  account.  Another 
quite  important  advantage  of  early  feeding  is  the 
less  trouble  in  cooking  the  food.  Convenience  of 
feeding  is  promoted,  as  there  is  no  cost  nor  trouble 
to  guard  against  freezing. 

The  more  you  can  mix  the  food,  the  better, 
as  they  will  thrive  faster  on  mixed  food  then  when 
fed  separately.  In  feeding,  no  more  should  be  given 
at  a  time  than  is  eaten  up  clean,  and  the  feeding 
should  be  regular  as  to  time.  It  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  get  the  best  varieties,  those  that  are 
well  formed,  and  have  an  aptitude  for  taking  on  fat 
readily,  and  consume  the  least  food.  As  to  which 
is  the  best  kind,  there  seems  to  be  a  great  diversity 
of  opinion,  some  preferring  one  kind  and  some 
another.  The  Suffolks  come  to  maturity  earliest, 
and  probably  are  the  most  profitable  to  kill  at  from 
seven  to  ten  months ;  but  others  prefer  the  Berk- 
shire. The  pork  of  both  is  excellent :  they  will 
usually  weigh  from  250  to  300  pounds  at  the  age  of 
eight  or  ten  months.  The  better  way  is  to  have 
the  pigs  dropped  about  the  first  of  April,  and  feed 
well  until  December,  and  then  butcher. 

From  a  variety  of  experiments,  I  am  satisfied  it  is 
wrong  to  let  a  hog  remain  poor  twelve  months  of  his 
life,  when  he  could  be  made  as  large  in  nine  months 
as  he  generally  is  in  fifteen;  and  I  conceive  it  a 
great  error  to  feed  corn  to  hogs  without  grinding. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  117 

It  has  been  proved  by  the  Shakers,  after  thirty 
years*  trial,  that  ground  corn  is  one-third  better  for 
hogs  and  cattle-feed  than  if  unground.  In  the  case 
of  another  feeder,  he  ascertained  the  ratio  of  gain  to 
be  even  greater  than  that  of  the  Shakers.  Others 
assert  that  cooking  corn-meal  nearly  doubles  its 
value.  A  distinguished  agriculturist  in  Ohio  proved 
that  nineteen  pounds  of  cooked  meal  were  equal  in 
value  to  fifty  pounds  raw.  If  pigs  are  well  kept  for 
three  months  after  being  dropped,  they  cannot  be 
stunted  after  that,  even  if  the  supply  of  food  is  less 
than  it  should  be. 

It  is  desirable  that  hogs  should  be  provided  with 
a  dry  floor  for  eating  and  sleeping  only,  and  the 
whole  pen  completely  sheltered,  to  prevent  any 
washing  or  waste  of  the  manure.  The  common- 
wealth of  the  piggery  should  be  furnished  with 
plenty  of  straw,  potato- vines,  leaves,  sawdust,  and 
the  like,  with  an  occasional  load  of  muck,  and  almost 
any  quantity  of  weeds,  all  of  which  will  be  converted 
into  the  most  efficient  supports  of  vegetable  life. 
Hogs  are  the  best  composters  known,  as  they  delight 
in  upturning  any  such  article  as  the  farmer  wishes 
to  convert  into  manure  for  the  coming  year. 

There  can  be  no  question  as  to  its  paying  to  make 
pork,  though  men  differ  on  this  as  widely  as  their 
pork  differs  when  brought  to  market.  The  poorer 
the  pork,  the  more  the  owner  complains  of  his  profits, 
or  rather  of  his  losses ;  and  the  better  the  pork,  the 
more  is  the  owner  satisfied.  There  can  be  no  profit 
in  raising  a  poor  breed  of  hogs,  that  have  no  fatten- 


118  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

ing  qualities ;  nor  even  a  good  breed,  without  con- 
venience or  proper  care.  A  good  hog  cannot  be 
fatted  to  any  profit  in  mud  or  filth,  nor  where  he 
suffers  from  cold.  His  comfort  should  be  consulted 
as  much  as  that  of  any  other  animal.  It  is  a  great 
error  to  assume  that  he  is  naturally  fond  of  living 
among  filth.  On  the  contrary,  hogs  are  remarkably 
neat,  and  those  which  fatten  the  best  always  keep 
themselves  the  cleanest.  One  farmer  assured  me 
that  he  had  made  his  corn  bring  $1.25  per  bushel  by 
passing  it  through  the  bowels  of  his  hogs,  besides 
having  the  manure  clear.  Another  did  much  better 
by  cooking  his  meal. 

As  no  farm  is  pronounced  complete  without  poul- 
try, and  as  both  my  wife  and  daughters  were  es- 
pecially fond  of  looking  after  chickens, — at  least 
they  thought  they  would  be, — so,  to  make  their  new 
home  attractive,  I  invested  17  in  the  purchase  of  a 
cock  and  ten  hens.  They  were  warranted  to  be 
powerful  layers,  and  would  hatch  fifteen  eggs  apiece. 
It  struck  me  that  this  sounded  very  large,  but  on 
my  wife  observing  it  would  be  only  a  hundred  and 
fifty  chickens  the  first  season,  I  gave  in  without  a 
word.  The  fact  is  that  chickens  were  not  my  hobby. 
I  did  not  think  they  would  pay,  even  after  hearing 
my  wife  dilate  on  the  luxury  it  would  be  to  have 
fresh  eggs  every  morning  for  breakfast,  for  pies  and 
puddings,  and  various  other  things  which  she  enu- 
merated, and,  as  she  expressed  it,  "  eggs  of  our  own 
laying." 

I  could  not  see  how  this  circle  of  wonders  was  to 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  119 

be  accomplished  by  only  ten  hens,  and  insinuated 
that  it  would  be  a  good  thing  if  she  could  make  a 
bargain  with  each  of  her  hens  to  lay  two  eggs  a  day. 
In  reply  to  this,  she  astonished  me  by  saying  that 
Americans  did  not  know  how  to  make  the  most  of 
things,  but  that  the  French  did.  She  said  that  a  cer- 
tain Frenchman,  mentioning  his  name — he  was  either 
a  marquis  or  count,  of  course — had  recently  discov- 
ered the  art  of  making  hens  lay  every  day  by  feeding 
them  on  horse-flesh,  and  that  he  feeds  out  twenty-five 
horses  a  day,  which  he  obtains  among  the  used-up 
hacks  of  Paris.  She  said  he  had  a  hennery  which 
furnishes  forty  thousand  dozens  of  eggs  a  week,  and 
that  it  yields  the  proprietor  a  clear  profit  of  five 
thousand  dollars  every  seven  days.  After  hearing 
this  I  felt  certain  she  had  been  reading  some  modern 
poultry -book.  But  as  she  did  not  speak  of  requiring 
me  to  furnish  horse-flesh  for  her  pets,  nor  contem- 
plate the  establishment  of  a  fresh-laid  egg  company, 
but  only  suggested  the  consumption  of  a  little  raw 
meat  now  and  then,  I  volunteered  no  objections. 
Her  enthusiasm  was  such  as  to  make  it  unsafe  to  do  so. 
Why  should  not  she  and  the  children  be  gratified  ? 
The  hens  came  home,  and  were  put  into  a  cage  in 
the  barnyard,  to  familiarize  them  with  their  new 
home.  But  they  did  not  lay  so  freely  as  she  had  ex- 
pected, while  some  did  not  lay  at  all.  Worse  than 
that,  as  soon  as  let  out  of  their  cage,  they  got  over 
the  fence  into  the  garden,  where  they  scratched  as 
violently  as  if  each  one  had  a  brood  of  fifteen  to 
scratch  for.     They  made  terrible  havoc  among  the 


120  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

young  flowers  and  vegetables,  and  tore  up  the  beds 
which  had  been  so  nicely  raked.  One  of  the  girls 
was  employed  half  her  time  in  driving  them  out.  I 
thought  it  too  great  an  expense  to  raise  the  barnyard 
fence  high  enough  to  keep  them  in,  and  so  they  were 
marched  back  into  the  cage.  It  happened  to  be  too 
small  for  so  many  fowls,  which  my  wife  did  not  sus- 
pect, until  one  day,  putting  her  hand  in  to  draw 
forth  a  sick  hen,  she  discovered  her  whole  arm  and 
sleeve  to  be  swarming  with  lice.  Here  was  some- 
thing she  did  not  remember  to  have  been  treated  of 
in  her  poultry-book.  But  the  nuisance  was  so  great, 
as  well  as  so  active,  soon  extending  itself  all  over  her 
person,  as  to  compel  her  to  strip  and  change  her  entire 
dress,  and  to  plunge  the  lousy  one  in  a  tub  of  water. 

I  confess  the  difficulty  was  a  new  one  to  me.  My 
experience  in  poultry  had  been  limited.  My  knowl- 
edge of  them  was  exclusively  anatomical,  obtained 
by  frequent  dissections  with  the  carving-knife.  On 
calling  Dick,  however,  it  appeared  that  he  knew 
more  about  this  trouble  than  the  whole  family  to- 
gether. When  my  wife  described  her  condition  to 
him,  and  how  she  had  swarmed  with  the  vermin, 
the  fellow  laughed  outright,  but  said  they  wouldn't 
hurt — he  knew  all  about  them,  for  he  had  been  full 
of  lice  more  than  once  !  He  said  he  expected  this, 
as  the  fowls  had  been  kept  up  too  close  :  they  would 
neither  lay,  thrive,  nor  keep  clear  of  vermin,  unless 
allowed  to  run  about. 

But  he  took  the  case  in  hand,  clipped  their  wings, 
saturated  their  heads  with  lamp  oil,  provided  abun- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  121 

dance  of  ashes  for  them  to  roll  in,  and  then  turned 
them  loose  in  the  barnyard.  He  then  obtained  poles 
of  sassafras  wood  for  them  to  roost  on,  as  he  said  the 
peculiar  odor  of  that  tree  would  drive  the  enemy 
away.  I  presume  his  prescriptions  answered  the 
purpose  ;  at  all  events,  we  discovered  no  more  hen- 
lice,  because  the  whole  family  were  careful  never  to 
touch  a  fowl  again. 

I  think  this  little  catastrophe  took  all  the  romance 
out  of  my  wife  touching  chickens.  I  rarely  heard 
her  mention  eggs  afterwards,  except  when  some  of 
us  were  going  to  the  store  for  other  things,  and  she 
was  careful  never  to  purchase  chickens  with  the 
feathers  on.  She  never  referred  to  the  hundred  and 
fifty  she  was  to  hatch  out  that  season ;  nor  have  I 
ever  heard  her  even  mention  horse-flesh  as  a  sure 
thing  for  making  hens  lay  all  the  year  round.  That 
winter  Dick  fattened  and  killed  the  whole  lot.  My 
wife  did  not  seem  to  have  much  stomach  for  them 
when  they  came  upon  the  table.  I  was  not  sorry 
for  it,  except  that  she  had  been  disappointed.  Her 
knowledge  of  keeping  poultry  had  been  purely  theo- 
retical, and  her  first  disappointment  had  completely 
w^eaned  her  of  her  fondness  for  the  art. 

But  this  brief  and  unlucky  experience  of  ours 
should  by  no  means  operate  to  discourage  others. 
Money  is  undoubtedly  made  by  skilful  men  at 
raising  poultry.  It  cannot  be  a  losing  business,  or 
so  many  thousand  tons  would  not  be  annually  pro- 
duced. Volumes  have  been  written  on  the  subject, 
which  all  who  contemplate  embarking  in  the  business 


122  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

may  consult  with  profit.  As  an  incident  of  farm  life 
it  will  always  be  interesting,  and  with  those  who 
understand  the  art  it  ought  to  be  profitable. 

Foreigners  must  be  more  experienced  in  the  busi- 
ness of  raising  poultry  than  Americans,  judging  by 
the  vast  quantities  they  annually  produce  for  market. 
The  quantity  imported  into  England  is  so  enormous, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  determine  its  amount.  Into 
only  two  of  the  principal  London  markets  thei'e  is 
annually  brought  from  France  and  Belgium,  75,000, 
000  eggs,  2,000,000  fowls,  400,000  pigeons,  200,000 
geese  and  turkeys,  and  300,000  ducks.  In  addition 
to  these,  the  large  amount  sent  to  poulterers  and 
private  houses  must  be  considered.  The  Brighton 
railroad  alone  carries  yearly  2,600  tons  of  eggs  which 
come  from  France  and  Belgium.  Yet,  with  all  these 
immense  supplies,  the  London  markets  are  fre- 
quently very  meagrely  supplied  with  butter  and 
eggs.  The  trade  is  shown  by  these  figures  to  be 
one  of  great  national  value.  Americans  have  strange- 
ly neglected  its  cultivation  with  the  method  and 
precision  of  foreigners.  We  can  raise  food  more 
cheaply  than  they,  while  none  of  them  can  boast  of 
possessing  our  incomparable  Indian  corn. 

There  are  several  of  my  neighbors  who  are  highly 
skilled  in  the  art  of  raising  poultry.  One  of  them 
is  quite  a  poultry-fancier,  and,  by  keeping  only 
choice  breeds,  he  realizes  fancy  prices  for  them. 
Another  confines  his  fowls  in  a  plum-orchard,  and 
thus  secures  an  annual  crop  of  plums  without  being 
stung  by  the  curculio.    In  general,  the  female  portion 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  123 

of  the  family  attend  to  this  branch  of  domestic  busi- 
ness, and  realize  a  snug  sum  from  it  annually.  A 
brood  of  young  chickens  turned  into  a  garden,  the 
hen  confined  in  her  coop,  will  soon  clear  it  of  de- 
structive insects. 


124  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

CITY    ANTt    COUNTEY    LIFE    CONTEASTED. 

The  pensive  reader  must  not  take  it  for  granted 
that  in  going  into  the  country  we  escaped  all  the 
annoyances  of  domestic  life  peculiar  to  the  city,  or 
that  we  fell  heir  to  no  new  ones,  such  as  we  had 
never  before  experienced.  He  must  remember  that 
this  is  a  world  of  compensations,  and  that  nowhere 
will  he  be  likely  to  find  either  an  unmixed  good  or 
an  unmixed  evil.  Such  was  exactly  our  experience. 
But  on  summing  up  the  two,  the  balance  was  de- 
cidedly in  our  favor.  It  is  true  that  though  the 
town  close  by  us  had  well-paved  streets,  yet  the 
walk  of  half  a  mile  to  reach  them  was  a  mere  gravel 
path,  which  was  sometimes  muddy  in  summer,  and 
sloppy  with  unshovelled  snow  in  winter.  But  I 
walked  over  it  almost  daily  to  the  post-ofiQce,  not 
even  imagining  that  it  was  worse  than  a  city  pave- 
ment. The  tramp  of  the  children  to  school  was  not 
longer  than  they  had  been  used  to,  and  my  wife  and 
daughters  thought  it  no  hardship  to  go  shopping 
among  the  well-supplied  stores  quite  as  frequently 
as  when  living  in  the  city.  Indeed,  I  sometimes 
thought  they  went  a  little  oftener.  They  were  cer- 
tainly as  well  posted  up  as  to  the  new  fashions  as 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  125 

they  had  ever  been,  while  the  fresh  country  air, 
united  with  constant  exercise,  kept  them  in  good 
appetite,  even  to  the  rounding  of  their  cheeks, 
and  the  maintenance  of  a  better  color  in  them 
than  ever. 

As  to  society,  they  very  soon  made  acquaintances 
quite  as  agreeable  as  could  be  desired.  Visiting 
became  a  very  frequent  thing;  and  after  a  few 
months  I  let  in  a  suspicion  that  the  girls  found 
twice  as  many  beaux  as  in  the  city,  though  there  the 
average  number  is  always  larger  than  in  the  country. 
On  throwing  out  an  insinuation  of  this  kind  to  Kate, 
one  summer  evening,  after  a  large  party  of  young 
folks  had  concluded  their  visit,  she  made  open  con- 
fession that  it  was  so,  and  volunteered  her  conviction 
that  they  were  decidedly  more  agreeable.  I  admit 
this  confession  did  not  surprise  me,  as  there  was  one 
young  man  among  the  party  who  had  become  es- 
pecially attentive  to  Kate — bringing  her  the  new 
magazines  as  soon  as  they  were  out,  sundry  books 
and  pictorials,  and  always  having  a  deal  to  say  to 
her,  with  a  singular  genius  for  getting  her  away 
from  the  rest  of  the  company,  so  that  most  of  their 
mysterious  small-talk  could  be  heard  by  none  but 
themselves.  Another  remark  which  I  made  to  Kate 
on  a  subsequent  occasion,  touching  this  subject, 
covered  her  bright  face  with  so  many  blushes  that  I 
ventured  to  mention  the  whole  matter  to  my  wife  ; 
but  she  made  so  light  of  the  thing  that  I  said  no 
more  at  the  time,  thinking,  perhaps,  that  the  women 
were  most  likely  the  best  judges  in  such  cases.    But 


126  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

I  have  since  discovered  that  my  prognostications 
were  much  more  to  be  depended  on  than  hers. 

Then  the  walks  for  miles  around  us  were  excellent, 
and  we  all  became  great  walkers,  for  walking  we 
found  to  be  good.  Not  merely  stepping  from  shop 
to  shop,  or  from  neighbor  to  neighbor,  but  stretching 
away  out  into  the  country,  to  the  freshest  fields,  the 
shadiest  woods,  the  highest  ridges,  and  the  greenest 
lawns.  We  found  that  however  sullen  the  imagina- 
tion may  have  been  among  its  griefs  at  home,  here  it 
cheered  up  and  smiled.  However  listless  the  limbs 
may  have  been  by  steady  toil,  here  they  were  braced 
up,  and  the  lagging  gait  became  buoyant  again. 
However  stubborn  the  memory  may  be  in  presenting 
that  only  which  was  agonizing,  and  insisting  on  that 
which  cannot  be  retrieved,  on  walking  among  the 
glowing  fields  it  ceases  to  regard  the  former,  and 
forgets  the  latter.  Indeed,  we  all  came  to  esteem 
the  mere  breathing  of  the  fresh  wind  upon  the  com- 
monest highway  to  be  rest  and  comfort,  which  must 
be  felt  to  be  believed. 

But  then  we  had  neither  gas  nor  hydrant  water, 
those  two  prime  luxuries  of  city  life.  Yet  there  was 
a  pump  in  a  deep  well  under  a  shed  at  the  kitchen 
door,  from  which  we  drew  water  so  cold  as  not  at 
any  time  to  need  that  other  city  luxury,  ice.  It  was 
gratifying  to  see  how  expertly  even  the  small  chil- 
dren operated  with  the  pump-handle.  In  a  month 
we  ceased  to  regret  the  hydrants.  As  to  gas,  we 
had  the  modern  lamps,  which  give  so  clear  a  light ; 
not  so  convenient,  it  must  be  confessed,  but  then 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  127 

they  did  not  cost  us  over  half  as  much,  neither  did 
we  sit  up  near  so  long  at  night.  There  were  two 
mails  from  the  city  daily,  and  the  newsboy  threw  the 
morning  paper  into  the  front  door  while  we  sat  at 
breakfast.  The  evening  paper  came  up  from  the 
city  before  we  had  supped.  We  had  two  daily  mails 
from  New  York,  besides  a  telegraph  station.  The 
baker  served  us  twice  a  day  with  bread,  when  we 
needed  it ;  the  oysterman  became  a  bore,  he  rang 
the  bell  so  often ;  and  the  fish-wagon,  with  sea-fish 
packed  in  ice,  directly  from  the  shore,  was  within 
call  as  often  as  we  desired,  with  fish  as  cheap  and 
sound  as  any  to  be  purchased  in  the  city.  Groceries 
and  provisions  from  the  store  cost  no  more  than 
they  did  there,  but  they  were  no  cheaper.  But  in 
the  item  of  rent  the  saving  was  enormous, — really 
half  enough,  in  my  case,  to  keep  a  moderate  family. 
Many's  the  time,  when  sweating  over  the  weeds, 
have  I  thought  of  this  last  heavy  drain  on  the  purse 
of  the  city  toiler,  and  thanked  Heaven  that  I  had 
ceased  to  work  for  the  landlord. 

We  had  books  as  abundantly  as  aforetime,  as  we 
retained  our  share  in  the  city  library,  and  became 
subscribers  to  that  in  the  adjoining  town.  It  is  true 
that  the  road  in  front  of  us  was  never  thronged  like 
Chestnut-street,  but  we  neither  sighed  after  the 
crowd  nor  missed  its  presence.  We  saw  no  flash  of 
jewelry,  nor  heard  the  rustling  of  expensive  silks, 
except  the  few  which  on  particular  occasions  were 
sported  within  our  own  unostentatious  domicile. 
Our  entire  wardrobes  were  manifestly  on  a  scale  less 


128  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

costl}^  than  ever.  Our  old  city  friends  were  ap- 
parently a  great  way  off,  but  as  they  could  reach  us 
in  an  hour  either  by  steamboat  or  rail,  they  quickly 
found  us  out.  The  relish  of  their  society  was 
heightened  by  distance  and  separation.  In  short, 
while  far  from  being  hermits,  we  were  happy  in 
ourselves.  I  think  my  wife  became  a  perfectly 
happy  woman — what  it  had  been  the  great  study  of 
my  wedded  life  to  make  her — the  very  sparkle  and 
sunshine  of  the  house.  She  possessed  the  magic 
secret  of  being  contented  under  any  circumstances. 
The  current  of  my  life  had  never  been  so  dark  and 
unpropitious,  that  the  sunshine  of  her  happy  face, 
falling  across  its  turbid  course,  failed  to  awake  an 
answering  gleam. 

Speaking  of  visitors  from  abroad,  I  noticed  that 
our  city  friends  came  to  make  their  visits  on  the  very 
hottest  summer  days,  when,  of  all  others,  we  were 
ourselves  sufficiently  exhausted  by  the  heat,  and  were 
disposed  to  put  up  with  as  little  cooking  and  in-door 
work  as  possible.  But  as  such  visitations  were  not 
exactly  comfortable  to  the  visited,  so  we  could  not 
see  how  they  could  be  any  more  agreeable  to  the  vis- 
itors. Yet  they  generally  remarked,  even  when  the 
mercury  was  up  to  ninety-five,  "  How  much  cooler 
it  is  in  the  country ! "  They  did  really  enjoy  either 
themselves  or  the  heat.  But  my  wife  told  them  it 
was  only  the  change  of  scene  that  made  the  weather 
tolerable,  and  that  if  they  lived  in  the  country  they 
would  soon  discover  it  to  be  quite  as  hot  as  in  the 
city.    For  my  part,  I  bore  the  heat  admirably,  though 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  129 

tanned  by  the  sun  to  the  color  of  an  aborigine ;  but 
I  enjoyed  the  inexpressible  luxury  of  going  constantly 
in  my  shirt- sleeves.  I  can  hardly  find  words  to  de- 
scribe the  feeling  of  comfort  which  I  enjoyed  for  full 
seven  months  out  of  the  twelve  from  this  little  piece 
of  latitudinarianism,  the  privilege  of  country  life, 
but  an  unknown  luxury  in  the  city. 

I  saw  that  this  press  of  company  in  the  very  hot- 
test weather  imposed  an  impleasant  burden  on  my 
wife,  for  she  and  my  two  oldest  daughters  were  the 
sole  caterers ;  and  I  intended  to  say  something  to 
her  concerning  it,  as  soon  as  a  large  party,  then 
staying  several  days  with  us,  should  have  concluded 
their  visit.  But  on  going  into  our  chamber  that  very 
evening,  she  surprised  me  by  asking  if  I  could  tell 
her  why,  when  Eve  was  made  from  one  of  Adam's 
ribs,  there  was  not  a  hired  girl  made  at  the  same 
time,  for  to  her  mind  it  took  three  to  make  a  pair — 
he,  she,  and  a  hired  girl.  I  replied  that  I  had  not 
given  much  time  to  the  study  of  navigation,  but 
that  I  quite  understood  her  meaning,  and  that  it 
was  exactly  what  I  had  myself  been  thinking  of. 
If  Adam's  rib,  after  producing  Eve,  had  not  held 
out  to  produce  a  hired  girl  also,  I  told  her  there 
was  a  much  quicker  way  of  getting  what  she  wanted, 
and  that  the  first  morning  paper  she  might  pick  up 
would  produce  her  twenty  hired  girls. 

In  this  way,  before  the  summer  was  over,  I  pro- 
cured her  a  servant,  thus  making  her  little  establish- 
ment complete.  For  this  luxury  we  paid  city  wages. 
But  this  was  a  small  item,  when  I  saw  how  much 
9 


130  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

her  presence  relieved  my  wife.  After  that,  I  do 
not  think  she  complained  quite  as  much  of  the  hot 
weather,  nor  was  she  inclined  so  frequently  to  re- 
peat her  former  observation,  that  the  sultry  days 
always  brought  the  most  company.  Indeed,  I  am 
certain  that  on  one  or  two  occasions,  when  the  dog- 
days  were  terribly  oppressive,  she  prevailed  on 
different  parties  to  prolong  their  stay  for  nearly  a 
week. 

Now,  this  taking  on  of  Betty  did  not  imply  that 
my  daughters  were  to  be  brought  up  to  do  nothing 
— or  to  do  everything  that  is  fashionable  imper- 
fectly. My  wife  had  already  educated  them  in 
domestic  duties — not  merely  to  marry,  to  go  off 
with  husbands  in  a  hurry,  and  afterwards  from 
them.  To  the  two  eldest  she  had  taught  a  trade, 
and  they  were  both  able  to  earn  their  salt.  They 
could  not  only  dress  themselves,  but  knew  how  to 
make  their  dresses  and  bonnets,  and  all  the  clothing 
for  the  younger  children.  She  cultivated  in  them 
all  that  was  necessary  in  the  position  in  which  they 
were  born,  one  thing  at  a  time,  but  that  thing  in 
perfection ;  so  that  if  parents  were  impoverished,  or 
if  in  after-life  reverses  should  overtake  themselves, 
they  might  feel  independent  in  the  ability  to  earn 
their  own  support.  She  frowned  upon  the  senseless 
rivalries  of  social  life,  as  destructive  of  morals,  mind, 
and  health,  and  imbued  their  spirits  with  a  devout 
veneration  for  holy  things.  She  taught  them  no 
worship  of  the  almighty  dollar,  but  sound,  practical 
economy,  the  art  of  saving  the  pieces.     Surely  it 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  131 

must  be  education  alone  which  fills  the  world  with 
two  kinds  of  girls — one  kind  which  appears  best 
abroad,  good  for  parties,  rides,  and  visits,  and  whose 
chief  delight  is  in  such  things — good,  in  fact,  for 
little  else.  The  other  is  the  kind  that  appears  best 
at  home,  graceful  in  the  parlor,  captivating  in  social 
intercourse,  useful  in  the  sick  chamber  as  in  the 
the  dining-room,  and  cheerful  in  all  the  precincts  of 
home.  They  differ  widely  in  character.  One  is 
often  the  family  torment ;  the  other  the  family 
blessing :  one  a  moth  consuming  everything  about 
her ;  the  other  a  sunbeam,  inspiring  life  and  glad- 
ness all  along  her  pathway.  As  my  wife  embodied 
in  herself  all  that  to  me  appeared  desirable  in 
woman,  so  she  possessed  the  faculty  of  transfusing 
her  own  virtues  into  the  constitution  of  her 
daughters. 


132  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

TWO      ACEES     IN     TRUCK — REVOLUTION     IN     AGRICUL- 
TURE. 

I  HAD  one  acre  in  tomatoes,  a  vegetable  for  whose 
production  the  soil  of  New  Jersey  is  perhaps  without 
a  rival.  The  plants  are  started  in  hot-beds,  where 
they  flourish  until  all  danger  from  frost  disappears, 
when  they  are  set  out  in  the  open  air,  with  a  gener- 
ous shovel-full  of  well-rotted  stable  manure  de- 
posited under  each  plant.  A  moist  day  is  preferred 
for  this  operation ;  but  even  without  it  this  plant 
generally  goes  on  growing.  It  has  been  observed 
that  the  of  tener  it  is  transplanted,  the  more  quickly 
it  matures ;  and  as  the  great  effort  among  growers 
is  to  be  first  in  market,  so  some  of  them  take  pains 
to  give  it  two  transplantings.  Having  no  hot-bed 
on  my  premises,  and  my  time  being  fully  occupied 
with  other  things,  I  was  compelled  to  purchase 
plants  from  those  who  had  them  to  spare,  the  cost 
of  which  is  elsewhere  stated.  But  the  operation 
paid  well. 

The  quantity  produced  by  an  acre  of  well-manured 
tomatoes  is  almost  incredible.  When  in  full  bear- 
ing, the  field  seems  to  be  perfectly  red  with  them. 
Those  which  come  first  into  market,  even  without 
being  perfectly  ripe,  sell  for  sixpence  apiece.     So 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  133 

popular  has  this  vegetable  become,  and  so  great  is 
the  profit  realized  by  cultivating  it,  that  for  nearly 
twenty  years  it  has  been  grown  in  large  quantities 
by  Jerseymen  who  emigrated  to  Virginia  for  the  pur- 
pose of  taking  advantage  of  the  earlier  climate  of  that 
genial  region.  There  they  bought  farms,  improved 
them  by  using  freely  the  unappropriated  and  unval- 
ued stores  of  manure  to  be  found  in  the  vicinity, 
and  produced  whole  cargoes  of  the  choicest  early 
vegetables  required  by  the  great  consuming  public  of 
the  northern  cities.  They  shipped  them  hither  two 
weeks  ahead  of  all  the  Jersey  truckers,  and  were 
rewarded  by  fabulous  prices,  from  the  receipts  of 
which  large  fortunes  resulted.  This  mutually  ad- 
vantageous traffic  had  become  a  very  important 
one,  when  rebellion  broke  it  up.  Intercourse  was 
stopped,  cultivation  was  abandoned,  and  the  Vir- 
ginia truckers  were  ruined. 

Although  this  competition  seriously  interfered 
with  the  profits  of  New  Jersey  farmers,  yet  it  did 
not  destroy  them.  The  cultivation  of  early  truck 
and  fruit  continued  to  pay,  though  not  so  well  as 
formerly.  When  prices  fell,  the  Southern  growers 
could  not  afford  the  cost  of  delivery  here,  and  thus 
left  us  in  undisputed  possession  of  the  market.  But 
as  a  general  rule,  the  Virginia  competitors  invaria- 
bly obtained  the  highest  prices.  A  great  portion  of 
their  several  crops,  however,  perished  on  their 
hands  ;  because,  as  they  had  no  market  here  when 
prices  fell,  so  the  scanty  population  around  them 
afforded  none  at  home. 


134  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

For  the  first  few  baskets  of  early  tomatoes  I  sent 
to  market,  I  obtained  two  dollars  per  basket  of  three 
pecks  each.  Other  growers  coming  in  competition 
with  me,  the  price  rapidly  diminished  as  the  supply 
increased,  until  it  fell  to  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel. 
At  less  than  this  the  growers  refused  to  pick  them ; 
and  seasons  have  been  repeatedly  known  when  tens 
of  thousands  of  bushels  were  left  to  perish  on  the 
vines.  When  this  low  price  could  be  no  longer 
obtained,  they  were  gathered  and  thrown  to  the 
pigs,  who  consumed  them  freely.  But  as  the  season 
advanced  the  supply  diminished,  and  the  price  again 
rose  to  a  dollar  a  basket,  the  demand  continuing  as 
long  as  any  could  be  procured.  The  tomatoes  are  at 
this  season  picked  green  from  the  vines,  and  placed 
under  glass,  where  they  are  imperfectly  ripened; 
but  such  is  the  public  appreciation  of  this  whole- 
some vegetable,  that  when  thus  only  half  reddened, 
they  are  eagerly  sought  after  by  hotels  and  board- 
ing-houses. 

But  of  latter  years  measures  have  been  taken  to 
prevent,  to  some  extent,  the  enormous  waste  of 
tomatoes  during  the  height  of  the  season,  by  pre- 
serving them  in  cans.  Establishments  have  been 
started,  at  which  any  quantity  that  may  be  offered 
is  purchased  at  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel ;  and 
now  they  can  be  kept  through  the  whole  year,  and 
be  preserved  for  winter  consumption,  the  same  as 
potatoes  or  turnips.  By  hermetically  sealing  them 
in  cans  from  which  the  air  has  been  expelled  by 
heat,  they   are   not  only  preserved,  but  made   to 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  135 

retain  their  full  flavor ;  and  may  be  enjoyed,  at  a 
very  moderate  cost,  in  the  winter  as  well  as  the 
summer.  The  demand  for  them  is  constant,  large, 
and  increasing,  and  putting  up  canned  tomatoes  has 
become  an  extensive  business.  One  person,  who 
commenced  the  business  two  years  ago,  is  literally 
up  to  the  eyes  in  tomatoes  once  a  year.  He  pro- 
vides for  a  single  year's  trade  over  fifty  thousand 
cans,  all  of  which  are  manufactured  by  himself ; 
and  he  employs  over  thirty  persons,  most  of  them 
women.  He  engages  tomatoes  at  twenty-five  cents 
a  bushel,  a  price  at  which  the  cultivator  clears 
about  a  hundred  dollars  an  acre,  and  they  come  in 
at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  bushels  a  day, 
requiring  the  constant  labor  of  all  hands  into  the 
night  to  dispose  of  them. 

The  building  in  which  the  business  is  carried  on 
was  constructed  expressly  for  it.  At  one  end  of  the 
room  in  which  the  canning  is  done  is  a  range  of 
brick- work  supporting  three  large  boilers ;  and  ad- 
joining is  another  large  boiler,  in  which  the  scald- 
ing is  done.  The  tomatoes  are  first  thrown  into  this 
scalder,  and  after  remaining  there  a  suflQcient  time, 
are  thrown  upon  a  long  table,  on  each  side  of  which 
are  ten  or  twelve  young  women,  who  rapidly  divest 
them  of  their  leathery  hides.  The  peeled  tomatoes 
are  then  thrown  into  the  boilers,  where  they  remain 
until  they  are  raised  to  a  boiling  heat,  when  they 
are  rapidly  poured  into  the  cans,  and  these  are  car- 
ried to  the  tinmen,  who,  with  a  dexterity  truly  mar- 
vellous, place  the  caps  upon  them,  and  solder  them 


136  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

down,  when  they  are  piled  up  to  cool,  after  which 
they  are  labelled,  and  are  ready  for  market.  The 
rapidity  and  the  system  with  which  all  this  is  done 
is  most  remarkable,  one  of  the  tinmen  soldering 
nearly  a  hundred  cans  in  an  hour. 

The  tomatoes  thus  preserved  are  readily  salable 
in  all  the  great  cities,  both  for  home  consumption 
and  for  use  at  sea.  Thus,  few  vegetables  have 
gained  so  rapid  and  wide-spread  a  popularity  as 
this.  Until  lately,  but  few  persons  would  even 
taste  them ;  and  they  were  raised,  when  cultivated 
at  all,  more  from  curiosity  than  anything  else. 
Now,  scarcely  a  person  can  be  found  who  is  not 
fond  of  them,  and  they  occupy  a  prominent  place 
on  almost  every  table. 

My  single  acre  of  tomatoes  produced  me  a  clear 
profit  of  $120.  I  am  aware  that  others  have  real- 
ized more  than  double  this  amount,  but  they  were 
experienced  hands  at  the  business.  My  gains  were 
quite  as  much  as  I  had  anticipated. 

From  all  the  remainder  of  the  three  acres  but 
little  money  was  produced.  It  gave  me  parsnips, 
turnips,  and  pumpkins.  Between  the  rows  of  sweet 
corn  a  fine  crop  of  cabbages  was  raised,  of  which  my 
sales  amounted  to  $82.  Thus,  an  abundant  supply 
of  succulent  food  was  provided  for  horse,  cow,  and 
pigs  during  the  winter,  all  which  saved  the  outlay 
of  so  much  cash.  I  admit  that  a  few  of  my  veg- 
etables did  not  yield  equal  to  the  grounds  of  some  of 
my  neighbors,  thus  disappointing  some  of  my  calcu- 
lations.    But  I   was  inexperienced,  had  much  to 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  137 

learn,  and  was  not  discouraged.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  had  gone  far  ahead  of  them  in  the  growth 
of  my  standard  fruits ;  and  the  evident  hit  I  had 
made  with  the  new  blackberry  had  the  effect  of 
impressing  them  with  considerable  respect  for  my 
courage  and  sagacity. 

This  business  of  raising  vegetables  for  the  great 
city  markets,  "  trucking,"  as  it  is  popularly  called, 
is  now  the  great  staple  of  New  Jersey  agriculture. 

All  the  region  of  country  stretching  from  Camden 
some  forty  miles  towards  New  York,  once  enjoyed  the 
reputation  of  being  either  all  sand  or  all  pine.  It  is 
traversed  by  the  old  highway  between  Philadelphia 
and  New  York,  laid  out  by  direction  of  royalty  in 
colonial  days,  and  protected  at  various  points  by 
barracks,  in  which  troops  were  garrisoned.  Some  of 
the  barracks  remain  to  this  day  ;  though  in  chambers 
where  high  military  revel  once  was  held,  devout 
congregations  now  worship.  Along  this  royal  high- 
way passed  all  the  early  travel  between  the  colonies ; 
and  after  they  had  been  severed  from  their  parent 
stem,  up  to  the  advent  of  steamboats  and  railroads,  it 
was  the  only  thoroughfare  between  the  two  cities  of 
New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Stages  occupied  five 
weary  days  between  them,  the  horses  exhausted  by 
wading  through  a  deep,  laborious  sand  in  summer, 
or  the  still  deeper  mud  through  which  they  floun- 
dered in  winter.  On  miles  of  this  road  the  sand  was 
frightful.  No  local  authorities  worked  it,  no  merci- 
ful builder  of  turnpikes  ever  thought  of  reclaiming 
it.    It  lay  from  generation  to  generation,  as  waste 


138  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

and  wild  as  when  the  native  pines  were  first  cleared 
away.  Access  was  so  laborious,  that  few  strangers 
visited  the  region  through  which  it  passed ;  and  the 
land  was  held  in  large  tracts,  whereon  but  few 
settlers  had  made  clearings.  All  judged  the  soil  as 
worthless  as  the  deep  sand  in  the  highway.  Where 
some  settler  did  clear  up  a  farm,  his  labors  presented 
no  inviting  spectacle  to  the  passing  traveller.  If 
manure  was  known  in  those  days,  the  farmer  did  not 
appear  to  value  it,  for  he  neither  manufactured  nor 
used  it.  Phosphates  and  fertilizers  had  not  been 
dreamed  of.  If  he  spread  any  fertilizer  over  his 
fields,  it  was  but  a  starveling  ration ;  hence  his  corn 
crop  was  a  harvest  of  nubbins.  Wheat  he  never 
thought  of  raising ;  rye  was  the  sole  winter  grain, 
and  rye  bread,  rye  mush,  and  rye  pie-crust,  held  un- 
contested dominion,  squalid  condiments  as  they  all 
are,  in  each  equally  squalid  farm-house.  Ragweed 
and  pigweed  took  alternate  possession  of  the  fields ; 
cultivation  was  at  its  last  point  of  attenuation  ;  none 
grew  rich,  while  all  became  poor ;  and  as  autumn 
came  on,  even  the  ordinarily  thoughtless  grasshopper 
climbed  feebly  up  to  the  abounding  mullein  top,  and 
with  tears  in  his  eyes  surveyed  the  melancholy 
desolation  around  him.  Such  is  a  true  picture  of  the 
king's  highway  up  to  the  building  of  the  Camden 
and  Amboy  Railroad. 

No  wonder  that  the  great  public  who  traversed  it 
through  this  part  of  New  Jersey  should  think  it,  and 
speak  of  it  everywhere,  as  being  all  sand,  seeing  that 
in  their  passage  through  it  they  beheld  but  little 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  139 

else.  Hence,  the  reputation  thus  early  established 
continues  to  the  present  day,  and  the  tradition  has 
been  incorporated  into  the  public  vernacular.  The 
sandy  road  alone  was  seen,  while  the  green  and 
fertile  tracts  that  lay  beyond  and  around  it  were 
unknown,  because  unseen.  Like  the  traveller  from 
Dan  to  Beersheba,  the  cry  was  that  all  was  barren. 
But  time,  improvement,  education,  railroads,  and  the 
marvellous  growth  of  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and 
fifty  intermediate  towns,  have  changed  all  this  as  by 
enchantment.  Every  mile  of  the  old  highway  is  now 
a  splendid  gravel  turnpike,  intersected  by  a  dozen 
similar  roads,  which  stretch  away  up  into  the 
country. 

As  good  roads  invite  settlement,  so  population,  the 
great  promoter  of  the  value  of  land,  has  come  in 
rapidly,  and  changed  the  aspect  of  every  farm-house. 
Good  fences  line  the  roadside,  rank  hedgerows  have 
disappeared,  new  farm-houses  have  been  everywhere 
built,  low  lands  have  been  drained,  manures  have 
been  imported  from  the  cities,  wheat  is  now  the 
staple  winter-grain,  rye  has  ceased  to  be  cultivated, 
and  rye  bread  is  now  a  mere  reminiscence  of  the  old 
dispensation.  But  chief,  perhaps,  of  all,  the  whole 
agricultural  world  of  New  Jersey  has  been  educated 
by  the  agricultural  press  to  a  high  standard  of  intel- 
ligence and  enterprise.  Its  labors  have  led  to  the 
establishment  of  numerous  extensive  nurseries,  by 
the  pressure  of  a  general  demand  for  trees  and 
smaller  fruits,  whose  wilderness  of  blossoms  now 
annually  blush  and  brighten  upon  every  farm.     It 


140  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

has  taught  them  to  cultivate  new  vegetables  and 
fruits  for  city  consumption  alone,  salable  for  cash 
in  each  successive  month ;  in  doing  which,  they  have 
changed  from  a  poverty-stricken  to  a  money-making 
generation.  It  has  taught  them,  what  none  pre- 
viously believed,  that  no  good  farming  can  be  done 
without  high  manuring,  and  banished  the  ignorance 
and  meanness  that  prevented  them  from  spending 
money  to  secure  it.  It  has  introduced  to  their 
notice  new  and  portable  manures,  improved  tools, 
better  breeds  of  stock  of  all  kinds,  and  sharpened 
their  perceptions,  until  they  have  now  become  men 
of  business  as  well  as  farmers,  and  so  proved  its 
value  to  them,  that  he  upon  whose  table  no  agricul- 
tural journal  can  be  found,  may  be  written  down  as 
the  laggard  of  a  progressive  age. 

But  in  addition  to  all  these  stimulants  to  progress 
the  Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad  came  in,  giving  it 
a  vast  momentum.  Terminating  at  Philadelphia  and 
New  York,  it  opened  up  a  cash  market  among  thou- 
sands asking  for  daily  bread.  When  this  road  was 
first  opened,  its  annual  way-freight  yielded  less  than 
one  hundred  dollars  a  year.  But  its  managers  wisely 
built  station-houses  at  every  cross-road,  as  the  farm- 
ers called  for  them.  To  these  nuclei  the  produce 
of  entire  townships  quickly  gathered  in  astonishing 
quantities.  Agents  from  the  great  cities  traversed 
the  country,  and  bought  everything  that  was  for  sale. 
A  cash  market  being  brought  to  their  very  doors, 
where  none  had  previously  existed,  an  immense  stim- 
ulus to  production  followed,  and  a  new  spirit  was 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  I41 

infused  into  the  whole  region.  Hundreds  of  farms 
were  renovated,  cleared  of  foul  weeds,  drained,  and 
liberally  manured.  New  vegetables  were  cultivated. 
Tomatoes,  peas,  rhubarb,  and  early  potatoes  rose  into 
prime  staples.  Green  corn  has  been  taken  from  a 
single  county  to  the  extent  of  two  thousand  tons 
daily.  Other  products  go  to  market  by  thousands  of 
baskets  at  a  time.  Way-trains  are  run  for  the  sole 
accommodation  of  this  truck  business,  stopping  every 
few  miles  to  take  in  the  waiting  contributions  col- 
lected at  the  stations.  To  both  railroad  and  farmer 
it  has  proved  a  highly  remunerating  traffic.  These 
way-freights,  thus  wisely  cultivated  by  the  railroad, 
now  amount  to  many  thousands  annually,  and  are 
steadily  growing  larger.  Meantime,  steamboats  on 
the  Delaware  stop  several  times  daily  at  new  wharves 
on  the  river,  sometimes  taking  at  one  trip  two  thou- 
sand baskets  of  truck,  from  a  point  where,  twelve 
years  ago,  the  same  number  could  not  be  gathered 
during  an  entire  season.  The  grower  thus  has  the 
choice  of  the  two  richest  markets  in  the  country. 
He  reaches  Philadelphia  in  one  hour,  and  New  York 
in  three. 

It  must  be  manifest  that  crops  of  such  magnitude 
cannot  be  produced  on  mere  sand.  Hence  the  tradi- 
tional notion  that  New  Jersey  is  a  sand  heap,  desolate 
and  barren  at  that,  has  long  been  proved  to  be  a 
fallacy.  Men  do  not  grow  rich  upon  a  burning 
desert,  such  as  this  region  has  been  described.  Yet 
the  farmers  who  occupy  it  are  notoriously  becoming 
so.    They  lend  money  annually  on  mortgage,  after 


142  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

spending  thousands  in  manure,  while  farms  have 
advanced  from  $30  to  1100  and  $200  per  acre.  The 
last  ten  years  have  added  thirty  per  cent,  to  the 
population.  Schools,  churches,  and  towns  have  pro- 
portionately increased  in  number. 

The  soil  of  this  truck  region  contains  a  large  pro- 
portion of  sand  with  loam,  on  which  manure  acts 
with  an  energetic  quickness  that  brings  all  early 
truck  into  the  great  markets  in  advance  of  the  neigh- 
boring country.  This  secures  high  prices.  Southern 
competition  has  only  stimulated  the  growers  to  in- 
creased exertion.  Though  from  this  cause  losing 
some  of  the  high  rewards  of  former  years,  yet  the 
aggregate  of  profit  does  not  seem  to  diminish.  Bet- 
ter cultivation,  higher  manuring,  changing  one  prod- 
uct for  another,  with  more  land  brought  into  tillage, 
enable  them  to  foot  up  as  large  an  amount  of  sales 
at  the  end  of  the  season  as  aforetime.  They  see  that 
the  world  cannot  be  overfed,  and  that  anything  they 
can  produce  will  command  a  ready  market.  Con- 
sumers increase  annually,  and  the  public  appetite 
loses  none  of  its  rampant  fierceness.  Hence,  com- 
petition stimulates  instead  of  discouraging. 

A  vast  area  is  planted  with  tomatoes.  Though 
thousands  of  bushels  perish  every  season,  yet  two 
hundred,  and  even  four  hundred  dollars  an  acre  is 
frequently  the  clear  profit.  Thirty  years  ago,  three 
bunches  of  rhubarb  were  brought  to  the  London 
market  for  sale,  but  as  no  one  could  be  found  to  buy 
them,  they  were  given  away  ;  yet  London  now  con- 
sumes seven  thousand  tons  annually.     So,  in  New 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  143 

Jersey — the  planter  of  the  first  half  acre  was  pitied 
for  his  temerity.  Now,  there  are  hundreds  of  acres 
of  rhubarb.  The  production  of  peas,  pickles,  cu- 
cumbers, melons,  and  cabbages  is  immense.  Early 
corn  is  raised  in  vast  quantities.  All  these  various 
products  command  cash  on  delivery. 

The  soil  of  this  region  has  long  been  famous  for 
its  growth  of  melons.  Formerly  they  were  raised 
by  ship-loads,  but  Southern  competition  has  checked 
their  production.  Yet  New  Jersey  citrons  possess  a 
flavor  so  exquisite,  that  they  cannot  be  driven  from 
the  market.  Peaches  have  long  since  become  almost 
obsolete,  the  yellows  and  the  worm  having  been  great 
discouragements.  But  within  three  years,  hundreds 
of  acres  of  them  have  been  planted  in  New  Jersey, 
and  the  nurseries  find  ready  sale,  in  seasons  of  aver- 
age prosperity,  for  all  they  can  produce.  Numerous 
orchards  will  annually  come  into  bearing ;  and  the 
chances  are  that  this  once  famous  staple  will  again  be 
domesticated  in  its  ancient  stronghold.  Among  the 
smaller  fruits,  strawberries  occupy  an  important  place 
in  New  Jersey,  whose  soil  seems  peculiarly  adapted 
to  them.  The  yield  per  acre  is  enormous.  One 
grower  has  gathered  400  bushels  from  three  acres  of 
the  Albany  seedling.  He  began  his  plantation  with 
a  single  dozen  plants,  at  $2.50  per  dozen.  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  took  them  all  at  an  average 
of  eighteen  cents  a  quart.  This  patch  was  a  marvel 
to  look  at.  The  ground  appeared  fairly  red  with 
berries  of  great  size,  and  were  so  abundant  that 
pickers  abandoned  other  fields  at  two  cents  a  quart, 


144  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

and  volunteered  to  pick  this  at  one  and  a  half.  Other 
neighboring  growers  realized  large  returns.  The 
two  counties  of  Burlington  and  Monmouth  are 
believed  to  yield  more  berries  of  all  kinds  than  any 
district  of  equal  area  in  the  Union,  and  the  cultiva- 
tion is  rapidly  extending. 

A  year  or  two  ago,  somebody  invented  and 
patented  a  new  box  for  taking  them  to  market, 
lighter,  neater,  cheaper  than  the  old  one,  and  secur- 
ing thorough  ventilation  to  the  fruit.  A  club  of 
Connecticut  men  forthwith  organized  a  company  with 
a  capital  of  110,000  for  manufacturing  them;  built 
a  factory,  started  an  engine,  and  now  have  forty 
hands  at  work.  An  agent  of  the  company  went 
through  the  State  last  fall,  from  Middletown  to  Cam- 
den, showing  samples,  and  taking  orders.  He  sold 
three  hundred  thousand  boxes,  many  to  those  who 
had  the  old  ones,  but  more  to  others  just  wanting 
them.  As  he  travelled  on  foot,  with  samples  in  his 
hand,  he  inquired  his  way  over  the  country,  from 
farm  to  farm,  and  probably  discovered  every  grower 
of  an  acre  of  berries.  Of  course  he  could  not  fail  to 
visit  and  supply  me.  He  gave  me  many  curious 
items  of  information  touching  the  extent  of  the  berry 
business.  There  are  parties  in  this  country  who  have 
fifty  acres  of  strawberries  on  a  single  farm,  with  a 
thousand  dollars  invested  merely  in  the  small  boxes 
in  which  they  are  taken  to  market.  He  reports 
that  the  two  counties  of  Burlington  and  Monmouth 
produce  more  berries  than  all  the  remainder  of  the 
State.     Strawberries  and  raspberries  are  now  the 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  145 

staples,  to  which  the  blackberry  has  recently  been 
added.  The  great  consuming  stomach  of  the  large 
cities,  having  long  been  fed  on  these  delicious  fruits, 
must  continue  to  buy.  Growers  seem  to  know  that 
after  thirty  years'  propagation  of  the  strawberry, 
this  devouring  stomach  has  never  been  surfeited, — 
that  the  more  it  is  fed  the  more  it  consumes. 

lO 


146  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

BIRDS,    AND    THE    SERVICES    THEY    RENDER. 

One  morning  in  September,  hearing  shots  fired 
repeatedly  at  the  further  end  of  my  grounds,  and 
proceeding  thither  to  ascertain  the  cause,  I  dis- 
covered three  great,  overgrown  boobies,  with  guns 
in  their  hands,  trampling  down  my  strawberries, 
and  shooting  bluebirds  and  robins.  On  inquiring 
where  they  belonged,  they  answered  in  the  next 
township.  I  suggested  to  them  that  I  thought  their 
own  township  was  quite  large  enough  to  keep  its 
own  loafers,  without  sending  them  to  depredate  on 
me,  warned  them  never  to  show  themselves  on  my 
premises  again,  and  then  drove  them  out.  This 
happened  to  be  the  only  occasion  on  which  I  was 
invaded  by  any  of  the  worthless,  loafing  tribe  of 
gunners,  who  roam  over  some  neighborhoods,  en- 
gaged in  the  manly  occupation  of  killing  tomtits  and 
catbirds. 

For  all  such  my  aversion  was  as  decided  as  my 
partiality  for  the  birds  was  strong.  One  of  the  little 
amusements  I  indulged  in  immediately  on  taking 
possession  on  my  farm,  was  to  put  up  at  least  twenty 
little  rough  contrivances  about  the  premises,  in 
which  the  birds  might  build.     Knowing  their  value 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  147 

as  destroyers  of  insects,  I  was  determined  to  protect 
them ;  and  thus,  around  the  dwelling-house,  in  the 
garden-trees,  and  upon  the  sides  of  the  barn,  as  well 
as  in  other  places  which  promised  to  be  popular,  I 
placed  boxes,  calabashes,  and  squashes  for  them  to 
occupy.  The  wrens  and  bluebirds  took  to  them 
with  gratifying  readiness,  built,  and  reared  their 
families.  But  I  observed  that  the  wren  quickly  took 
possession  of  every  one  in  which  the  hole  was  just 
large  enough  to  admit  himself,  and  too  small  to  allow 
the  bluebird  to  enter ;  while  in  those  large  enough 
to  admit  a  bluebird  no  wren  would  build.  This 
was  because  the  bluebird  has  a  standing  spite  against 
the  wrens,  which  leads  him  to  enter  the  nests  of  the 
latter,  whenever  possible,  and  destroy  their  eggs. 
Almost  any  number  of  wrens  may  thus  be  attracted 
round  the  house  and  garden,  where  they  act  as 
vigilant  destroyers  of  insects. 

These  interesting  creatures  soon  hatched  out  large 
broods  of  young,  to  provide  food  for  which  they 
were  incessantly  on  the  wing.  They  became  sur- 
prisingly tame  and  familiar,  those  especially  which 
were  nearest  the  house,  and  in  trees  beneath  which 
the  family  were  constantly  passing.  We  watched 
their  movements  through  the  season  with  increasing 
interest.  No  cat  was  permitted  even  to  approach 
their  nests,  no  tree  on  which  a  family  was  domiciled 
was  ever  jarred  or  shaken ;  and  the  young  children, 
instead  of  regarding  them  as  game  to  be  frightened 
off,  or  hunted,  caught,  and  killed,  were  educated  to 
admire  and  love  them.     Indeed,  so  carefully  did  we 


148  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

observe  their  looks  and  motions,  that  many  times  I 
felt  almost  sure  that  I  could  identify  and  recognize 
the  tenants  of  particular  boxes.  They  ranged  over 
the  whole  extent  of  my  ten  acres,  clearing  the 
bushes  and  vegetables  of  insects  and  worms  ;  while 
the  garden,  in  which  they  sang  and  chattered  from 
daybreak  until  sunset,  was  kept  entirely  clear  of  the 
destroyers.  I  encountered  them  at  the  furthest 
extremity  of  my  domain,  peering  under  the  peach- 
leaves,  flitting  from  one  tomato-vine  to  another, 
almost  as  tame  as  those  at  home.  They  must  have 
known  me,  and  felt  safe  from  harm.  I  am  per- 
suaded that  I  recognized  them.  Yet  it  was  at  this 
class  of  useful  birds  that  the  boobies  calling  them- 
selves sportsmen  were  aiming  their  weapons,  when 
I  routed  them  from  the  premises,  and  forbid  the 
murderous  foray. 

Insects  are,  occasionally,  one  of  the  farmer's  great- 
est pests.  But  high,  thorough  farming  is  a  potent 
destroyer.  It  is  claimed  by  British  writers  to  be  a 
sure  one.  When  the  average  produce  of  wheat  in 
England  was  only  twenty  bushels  per  acre,  the 
ravages  of  the  insect  tribe  were  far  more  general 
and  destructive  than  they  have  been  since  the 
average  has  risen  to  forty  bushels  per  acre.  Why 
may  not  the  cultivation  of  domestic  birds  like  these, 
that  nestle  round  the  house  and  garden,  where 
insects  mostly  congregate,  be  considered  an  import- 
ant feature  in  any  system  of  thorough  farming  ? 

Besides  the  wrens  and  bluebirds,  the  robins  built 
under  the  eaves  of    the  wood-shed,   and  became 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  149 

exceedingly  tame.  The  more  social  swallow  took 
possession  of  every  convenient  nestling- place  about 
the  barn,  while  troops  of  little  sparrows  came  con- 
fidingly to  the  kitchen  door  to  pick  up  the  crumbs  of 
bread  which  the  children  scattered  on  the  pavement 
as  soon  as  they  discovered  that  these  innocent  little 
creatures  were  fond  of  them.  Thus  my  premises 
became  a  sort  of  open  aviary,  in  which  a  multitude 
of  birds  were  cultivated  with  assiduous  care,  and 
where  they  shall  be  even  more  assiduously  domesti- 
cated, as  long  as  I  continue  to  be  lord  of  the  manor. 
I  pity  the  man  who  can  look  on  these  things, 
who  can  listen  to  the  song  of  wrens,  the  loud, 
inspiring  carol  of  the  robin  on  the  tree-top,  as  the 
setting  sun  gilds  its  utmost  extremities,  listening  to 
these  vocal  evidences  of  animal  comfort  and  enjoy- 
ment, without  feeling  any  augmentation  of  his  own 
pleasures,  and  that  the  lonesome  blank  which  some- 
times hangs  around  a  rural  residence  is  thus  grate- 
fully filled. 

One  morning,  hearing  a  great  clamor  and  turmoil 
in  a  thicket  in  the  garden,  where  a  nest  of  orioles 
had  been  filled  with  young  birds,  I  cautiously 
approached  to  discover  the  cause.  A  dozen  orioles 
were  hovering  about  in  great  excitement,  and  for 
some  time  it  was  impossible  to  discover  the  meaning 
of  the  trouble.  But  remaining  perfectly  quiet,  so  as 
not  to  increase  the  disturbance,  I  at  length  dis- 
covered an  oriole,  whose  wing  had  become  so  en- 
tangled in  one  end  of  a  long  string  which  formed 
part  of  the  nest  that  she  could  not  escape.    The 


150  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

other  birds  had  also  discovered  her  condition,  and 
hence  their  lamentation  over  a  misfortune  they  were 
unable  to  remedy.  But  they  did  all  they  could, 
and  were  assiduously  bringing  food  to  a  nest  full  of 
voracious  young  ones,  as  well  as  feeding  the  impris- 
oned parent.  I  was  so  struck  with  the  interesting 
spectacle  that  my  family  were  called  out  to  witness 
it ;  then,  having  gazed  upon  it  a  few  moments,  I 
cautiously  approached  the  prisoner,  took  her  in  my 
hands,  carefully  untied  and  then  cut  away  the 
treacherous  string,  and  let  the  frightened  warbler 
go  free.  She  instantly  flew  up  into  her  nest,  as  if  to 
see  that  all  her  callow  brood  were  safe,  gave  us 
a  song  of  thanks,  and  immediately  the  crowd  of 
sympathizing  birds,  as  if  conscious  that  the  difficulty 
no  longer  existed,  flew  away  to  their  respective 
nests. 

It  takes  mankind  a  great  while  to  learn  the  ways 
of  Providence,  and  to  understand  that  things  are 
better  contrived  for  him  than  he  can  contrive  them 
for  himself.  Of  late,  the  people  are  beginning  to 
learn  that  they  have  mistaken  the  character  of  most 
of  the  little  birds,  and  have  not  understood  the 
object  of  the  Almighty  in  creating  them.  They  are 
the  friends  of  those  who  plant,  and  sow,  and  reap. 
It  has  been  seen  that  they  live  mostly  on  insects, 
which  are  among  the  worst  enemies  of  the  agricul- 
turist ;  and  that  if  they  take  now  and  then  a  grain 
of  wheat,  a  grape,  a  cherry,  or  a  strawberry,  they 
levy  but  a  small  tax  for  the  immense  services  ren- 
dered.   In  this  altered  state  of  things,  legislatures 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  151 

are  passing  laws  for  the  protection  of  little  birds, 
and  increasing  the  penalties  to  be  enforced  upon  the 
bird-killers. 

A  farmer  in  my  neighborhood  came  one  day  to 
borrow  a  gun  for  the  purpose  of  killing  some  yellow 
birds  in  his  field  of  wheat,  which  he  said  were  eat- 
ing up  the  grain.  I  declined  to  loan  the  gun.  In 
order,  however,  to  gratify  his  curiosity,  I  shot  one  of 
them,  opened  its  crop,  and  found  in  it  two  hundred 
weevils,  and  but  four  grains  of  wheat,  and  in  these 
four  grains  the  weevil  had  burrowed  !  This  was  a 
most  instructive  lesson,  and  worth  the  life  of  the 
poor  bird,  valuable  as  it  was.  This  bird  resembles 
the  canary,  and  sings  finely.  One  fact  like  this 
affords  an  eloquent  text  for  sermonizing,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  farmers  and  others  who  may  look  up- 
on little  birds  as  inimical  to  their  interests.  Every 
hunter  and  farmer  ought  to  know  that  there  is 
hardly  a  bird  that  flies  that  is  not  a  friend  of  the 
farmer  and  gardener- 
Some  genial  spirits  have  given  the  most  elaborate 
attention  to  the  question  of  the  value  of  birds.  One 
gentleman  took  his  position  some  fifteen  feet  from 
the  nest  of  an  oriole,  in  the  top  of  a  peach-tree,  to 
observe  his  habits.  The  nest  contained  four  young 
ones,  \<  "ill  fledged,  which  every  now  and  then  would 
stand  upon  the  edge  of  the  nest  to  try  their  wings. 
They  were,  therefore,  at  an  age  which  required  the 
largest  supply  of  food.  This  the  parents  furnished 
at  intervals  of  two  to  six  minutes,  throughout  the 
day.    They  lighted  on  the  trees,  the  vines,  the  grass, 


152  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

and  other  shrubbery,  clinging  at  times  to  the  most 
extreme  and  delicate  points  of  the  leaves,  in  search 
of  insects.  Nothing  seemed  to  come  amiss  to  these 
sharp-eyed  foragers  —  grasshoppers,  caterpillars, 
worms,  and  the  smaller  flies.  Sometimes  one,  and 
sometimes  as  many  as  six,  were  plainly  fed  to  the 
young  ones  at  once.  They  would  also  carry  away 
the  refuse  litter  from  the  nest,  and  drop  it  many 
yards  off.  A  little  figuring  gives  the  result  of  this 
incessant  warfare  against  the  insects.  For  only 
eight  working  hours  it  will  be  1000  worms  de- 
stroyed by  a  single  pair  of  birds.  But  if  a  hundred 
pairs  be  domesticated  on  the  premises,  the  destruc- 
tion will  amount  to  100,000  daily,  or  3,000,000  a 
month ! 

This  may  seem  to  be  a  mere  paper  calculation, 
but  the  annals  of  ornithology  are  crowded  with  con- 
firmatory facts.  The  robin  is  accused  of  appropri- 
ating the  fruit  which  he  has  protected  during  the 
growing  season  from  a  cloud  of  enemies.  But  his 
principal  food  is  spiders,  beetles,  caterpillars,  worms, 
and  larvae.  Nearly  200  larvae  have  been  taken  from 
the  gizzard  of  a  single  bird.  He  feeds  voraciously 
on  those  of  the  destructive  worm.  In  July  he  takes 
a  few  strawberries,  cherries,  and  pulpy  fruits  gen- 
erally, more  as  a  dessert  than  anything  else,  because 
it  is  invariably  found  to  be  largely  intermixed  with 
insects.  Robins  killed  in  the  country,  at  a  distance 
from  gardens  and  fruit-trees,  are  found  to  contain 
less  stone-fruit  than  those  near  villages ;  showing 
than  this  bird  is  not  an  extensive  forager.     If  our 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  163 

choicest  fruits  are  near  at  hand,  he  takes  a  small 
toll  of  them,  but  a  small  one  only.  In  reality,  a 
very  considerable  part  of  every  crop  of  grain  and 
fruit  is  planted,  not  for  the  mouths  of  our  children, 
but  for  the  fly,  the  curculio,  and  the  canker-worm, 
or  some  other  of  these  pests  of  husbandry.  Science 
has  done  something,  and  will  no  doubt  do  more,  to 
alleviate  the  plague.  It  has  already  taught  us  not 
to  wage  equal  war  on  the  wheat-fly  and  the  parasite 
which  preys  upon  it ;  and  it  will,  perhaps,  event- 
ually persuade  those  who  need  the  lesson,  that  a 
few  peas  and  cherries  are  well  bestowed  by  way  of 
dessert  on  the  cheerful  little  warblers,  who  turn  our 
gardens  into  concert-rooms,  and  do  so  much  to  aid 
us  in  the  warfare  against  the  grubs  and  caterpillars, 
which  form  their  principal  meal. 

But  if  the  subject  of  the  value  of  insect-destroy- 
ing birds  has  been  so  much  overlooked  in  this 
country,  it  is  not  so  in  Europe.  It  has  been  brought 
formally  before  the  French  Senate,  and  is  now 
before  the  French  government.  Learned  commis- 
sioners have  reported  upon  it,  and  it  is  by  no  means 
improbable  that  special  legislation  will  presently 
follow.  The  inquiry  has  been  conducted  with  an 
elaborate  accuracy  characteristic  of  French  legis- 
lation. Insects  and  birds  have  been  carefully  clas- 
sified according  to  their  several  species ;  their  habits 
of  feeding  have  been  closely  observed,  and  the 
results  ascertained  and  computed.  It  has  been  con- 
cluded that  by  no  agency,  save  that  of  little  birds, 
can  the  ravages  of  insects  be  kept  down.    There  are 


154  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

some  birds  which  live  exclusively  upon  insects  and 
grubs,  and  the  quantity  which  they  destroy  is 
enormous.  There  are  others  which  live  partly  on 
grubs,  and  partly  on  grain,  doing  some  damage,  but 
providing  an  abundant  compensation.  A  third  class 
— the  Birds  of  Prey — are  excepted  from  the  cate- 
gory of  benefactors,  and  are  pronounced,  too  pre- 
cipitately we  think,  to  be  noxious,  inasmuch  as 
they  live  mostly  upon  the  smaller  birds.  One  class 
is  a  match  for  the  other.  A  certain  insect  was  found 
to  lay  2,000  eggs,  but  a  single  tomtit  was  found  to 
eat  200,000  eggs  a  year.  A  swallow  devours  about 
543  insects  a  day,  eggs  and  all.  A  sparrow's  nest, 
in  the  city  of  Paris,  was  found  to  contain  700  pairs 
of  the  upper  wings  of  cockchafers,  though,  of  course, 
in  such  a  place  food  of  other  kinds  was  procurable 
in  abundance.  It  will  easily  be  seen,  therefore, 
what  an  excess  of  insect  life  is  produced  when  a 
counterpoise  like  this  is  withdrawn  ;  and  the  statis- 
tics before  us  show  clearly  to  what  an  extent  the 
balance  of  nature  has  been  disturbed.  A  third,  and 
wholly  artificial  class  of  destroyers  has  been  intro- 
duced. Every  chasseur^  during  the  season,  kills,  it 
is  said,  from  100  to  200  birds  daily.  A  single  child 
has  been  known  to  come  home  at  night  with  100 
birds'  eggs,  and  it  has  been  calculated  and  reported 
that  the  number  of  birds'  eggs  destroyed  annually 
in  France  is  between  80,000,000  and  100,000,000. 
The  result  is,  that  little  birds  in  that  country  are 
actually  dying  out ;  some  species  have  already  dis- 
appeared, and  others  are  rapidly  diminishing.     But 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  155 

there  is  another  consequence.  The  French  crops 
have  suffered  terribly  from  the  superabundance  of 
insect  vermin.  Not  only  the  various  kinds  of  grain, 
but  the  vines,  the  olives,  and  even  forest  trees,  tell 
the  same  tale  of  mischief,  till  at  length  the  alarm 
has  become  serious.  Birds  are  now  likely  to  be 
protected ;  indeed  their  rise  in  public  estimation  has 
been  signally  rapid.  Some  philosopher  has  declared, 
and  the  report  quotes  the  saying  as  a  profound  one, 
that  "the  birds  can  live  without  man,  but  man  can- 
not live  without  the  birds." 

The  same  results  are  being  experienced  in  this 
country,  and  our  whole  agricultural  press,  as  well 
as  the  experience  of  every  fruit-grower  and  gardener, 
testifies  to  the  fact  that  our  fruit  is  disappearing  as 
the  birds  upon  our  premises  are  permitted  to  perish. 
Every  humane  and  prudent  man  will  therefore  do 
his  utmost  to  preserve  them. 


156  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

CLOSE    OF    MY    FIRST    YEAR ITS    LOSS    AND    GAIN. 

It  was  now  the  dead  of  winter.  Everything  was 
frozen  up  ;  but  though  cheerless  without,  it  was  far 
from  being  so  within.  My  little  library,  well  sup- 
plied with  books  and  the  literature  of  the  day,  af- 
forded me  an  intellectual  banquet  which  never 
palled  upon  the  appetite.  Here  my  desk  was  ever 
open  ;  here  pen,  and  ink,  and  diary  were  constantly 
at  hand,  for  entering  down  my  expenditures  and 
receipts,  with  facts  and  observations  for  future  use. 
Thus  conveniently  provided,  and  all  my  life  accus- 
tomed to  accounts,  I  found  no  diflQculty  at  the  year's 
end  in  ascertaining  to  a  dollar  whether  my  first 
season's  experience  had  been  one  of  loss  or  gain.  I 
give  the  particulars  in  full — 

Cost  of  stable  manure  and  ashes $248.00 

Plaster  and  guano,  not  all  used 20.00 

Ploughing,  harrowing,  and  digging  up  the  garden  30.00 

Cabbage  and  tomato  plants 30.00 

Loss  on  my  first  cow 7.00 

Garden  seeds 8.00 

Cost  of  six  pigs 12.00 

Corn-meal  and  bran 28.00 

Dick's  wages  for  six  months 72.00 

$455.00 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  157 

Here  was  an  outlay  of  $455,  all  of  which  was  likely 
to  occur  every  year,  except  the  two  items  of  loss  on 
cow,  and  cost  of  buying  cabbages  and  tomato-plants, 
which  have  subsequently  been  raised  in  a  hotbed  at 
home,  without  costing  a  dollar.  The  great  item  is 
in  manure,  amounting  to  $268 ;  and  this  must  be 
kept  at  the  same  figure,  if  not  increased,  unless  an 
equal  quantity  can,  by  some  process,  be  manufac- 
tured at  home. 

Then  there  was  the  following  permanent  outlay 
made  in  stocking  the  farm  with  fruit : 

Strawberries  for  six  acres $120.00 

Raspberries  for  two  acres 34.00 

804  Peach-trees,  and  planting  them 72.36 

$226.36 

This  constituted  a  permanent  investment  of  capi- 
tal, and  would  not  have  to  be  repeated,  so  that  the 
actual  cost  the  first  year  was,  as  stated,  $455.  My 
own  time  and  labor  are  not  charged,  because  that 
item  is  adjusted  in  the  grand  result  of  whether  the 
farm  supported  me  or  not.  There  was  also  the  cost 
of  horse  and  cow,  ploughs,  and  other  tools;  but 
these,  too,  were  investments,  not  expenses.  They 
could  be  resold  for  money,  no  doubt,  at  some  loss. 
A  portion  of  that  capital  could  therefore  be  re- 
covered. So,  also,  with  the  large  item  of  $226.36, 
invested  in  standard  fruits  ;  as,  if  the  farm  were  sold 
its  being  stocked  with  them  would  insure  its  bring- 
ing a  higher  price  in  consequence,  probably  enough 
to  refund  the  capital  thus  invested. 

It  is  fair,  therefore,  to  charge  the  current  expenses 


158  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

only  against  the  current  receipts.     The  latter  were 
as  follows : 

Sales  of  blackberry  plants $460.00 

"         cabbages 82.00 

"         tomatoes.. 120.00 

"         garden  products 80.00 

"         pork 49.00 

$791.00 
Current  expenses,  as  stated , 455.00  • 

Profit $336.00 

This  was  about  11.25  per  day  for  the  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy -five  days  we  had  been  in  the  coun- 
try, from  April  1st  to  January  1st,  and,  when  added 
to  our  copious  supplies  of  vegetables,  fruit,  pork, 
and  milk,  it  kept  the  family  in  abundance.  I 
proved  this  by  a  very  simple  formula.  I  knew 
exactly  how  much  cash  I  had  on  hand  when  I  be- 
gan in  April,  and  from  that  amount  deducted  the 
cost  of  all  my  permanent  investments  in  standard 
fruits,  stock,  and  implements,  and  found  that  the 
remainder  came  within  a  few  cents  of  the  balance 
on  hand  in  January.  I  did  not  owe  a  dollar,  and 
had  food  enough  to  keep  my  stock  till  spring.  The 
season  had  been  a  good  one  for  me,  and  we  felt  the 
greatest  encouragement  to  persevere,  as  the  first 
diificulties  had  been  overcome,  and  the  second  sea- 
son promised  to  be  much  more  profitable.  I  con- 
sidered the  problem  as  very  nearly  solved. 

It  will  be  noted  that  no  cash  was  received  for 
strawberries,  and  herein  is  involved  a  fact  important 
to  be  known  and  acted  on  by  the  growers  of  this 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  159 

fruit.  Most  men,  when  planting  them,  say  in  March 
or  April,  are  impatient  for  a  crop  in  June.  But 
this  should  never  be  allowed.  As  soon  as  the  blos- 
soms appear,  they  should  be  removed.  The  newly 
transplanted  vine  has  work  enough  thrown  upon  its 
roots  in  repairing  the  damage  it  has  suffered  in  be- 
ing removed  from  one  location  to  another,  without 
being  compelled,  in  addition,  to  mature  a  crop  of 
fruit.  To  require  it  to  do  both  is  imposing  on  the 
roots  a  task  they  are  many  times  unable  to  perform. 
The  draft  upon  them  by  the  ripening  fruit  is  more 
than  they  can  bear.  I  have  known  large  fields  of 
newly-planted  vines  perish  in  a  dry  season  from 
this  cause  alone.  The  writers  on  strawberry  cul- 
ture sometimes  recommend  removing  the  blossoms 
the  first  year,  but  not  with  sufficient  urgency.  I 
lay  it  down  as  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  robust  growth.  Thus  believing, 
my  blossoms  were  all  clipped  off  with  scissors; 
and  hence,  though  stronger  plants  were  thus  pro- 
duced, yet  there  was  no  fruit  to  sell. 

It  must  also  be  remembered  that  my  entire  profit 
consisted  of  the  single  item  of  sales  of  plants; 
hence,  if  there  had  been  no  demand  for  Lawtons,  or 
if  I  had  happened  to  have  none  for  sale,  there  would 
have  been  an  actual  loss.  My  having  them  was  a 
mere  accident,  and  my  luck  in  this  respect  was  quite 
exceptional.  Unless  others  happen  to  be  equally 
lucky,  they  may  set  down  their  first  year  as  very 
certain  to  yield  no  profit.  With  persons  as  inex- 
perienced as  I  was  when  beginning,  no  other  result 
should  be  expected. 


160  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

Winter  is  proverbially  the  farmer's  holiday.  But 
it  was  no  idle  time  with  me.  I  had  too  long  been 
trained  to  habits  of  industry,  to  lounge  about  the 
house  simply  because  no  weeds  could  be  found  to 
kill.  The  careful  man  will  find  a  world  of  fixing  up 
to  do  for  winter.  As  it  came  on  slowly  through  a 
gorgeous  Indian  summer,  I  set  myself  to  cleaning  up 
the  litter  round  the  premises,  and  put  the  garden 
into  the  best  condition  for  the  coming  season.  The 
verbenas  had  gone  from  the  borders  ;  the  petunias 
had  withered  on  the  little  mound  whereon  their  red 
and  white  had  flashed  so  gayly  in  captivating  con- 
trast during  the  summer ;  the  delicate  cypress- vine 
had  blackened  at  the  touch  of  a  single  frosty  night ; 
the  lady-slipper  hung  her  flowery  head  ;  all  the  fam- 
ily of  roses  had  faded ;  the  morning-glory  had  with- 
ered ;  even  the  hardy  honeysuckle  had  been  frozen 
crisp.  From  the  fruit-trees  a  crowd  of  leaves  had 
fallen  upon  every  garden- walk.  Plants  that  needed 
housing  were  carefully  potted,  and  taken  under 
cover.  The  walks  were  cleared  of  leaves  by  trans- 
ferring them  to  the  barnyard.  Bushes,  trees,  and 
vines  were  trimmed.  Every  remnant  of  decay  was 
removed.  The  December  sunshine  fell  upon  a  gar- 
den so  trim  and  neat,  that  even  in  the  bleakest  day 
it  was  not  unpleasant  to  wander  through  its  alleys, 
and  observe  those  wintry  visitants,  the  snow-birds, 
gathering  from  the  bushes  their  scanty  store  of 
favorite  seeds.  The  asparagus  was  covered  deeply 
with  its  favorite  manure,  and  heavily  salted.  Ten- 
der roses  were  banked  up  with  barnyard  scrapings. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  lei 

and  every  delicate  plant  protected  for  its  long  sea- 
son of  hybernation. 

Dick  had  his  share  of  exemption  from  excessive 
labor.  But  I  kept  him  tolerably  busy  for  weeks 
in  gathering  up  the  cloud  of  leaves  which  fell 
throughout  the  neighborhood  from  roadsides  lined 
with  trees.  No  manure  is  so  well  worth  saving 
in  October  and  November  as  the  falling  leaves. 
They  contain  nearly  three  times  as  much  nitrogen 
as  ordinary  barnyard  manure ;  and  every  gardener 
who  has  strewn  and  covered  them  in  his  trenches 
late  in  the  fall  or  in  December,  must  have  noticed 
the  next  season  how  black  and  moist  the  soil  is  that 
adheres  to  the  thrifty  young  beets  he  pulls.  No 
vegetable  substance  yields  its  woody  fibre  and  be- 
comes soluble  quicker  than  leaves ;  and,  from  this 
very  cause,  they  are  soon  dried  up,  scattered  to  the 
winds,  and  wasted,  if  not  now  gathered  and  trenched 
in,  or  composted,  before  the  advent  of  severe  winter. 

My  horse,  and  cow,  and  pigs,  all  slept  in  leaves. 
Their  beds  were  warm  and  easy,  and  the  saving  of 
straw  for  litter  was  an  item.  As  they  were 
abundant,  and  very  convenient,  Dick  carted  to  the 
barnyard  an  enormous  quantity.  Placing  enough 
of  them  under  cover,  he  littered  all  the  stock  with 
them  until  spring.  The  remainder  was  composted 
with  the  contents  of  the  barnyard,  and  thus  made  a 
very  important  addition  to  my  stock  of  manure. 
Thus  the  leaf-harvest  is  one  of  importance  to  the 
farmer,  if  he  will  but  avail  himself  of  it.  A  calm 
day  or  two  spent  in  this  business  will  enable  him 
II 


162  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

to  get  together  a  large  pile  of  these  fallen  leaves ; 
and  if  stowed  in  a  dry  place,  he  will  experience  the 
good  effects  of  them  in  the  improved  condition  of 
his  stock,  compared  with  those  which  are  suffered  to 
lie  down,  and  perhaps  be  frozen  down,  in  their  own 
filth.  The  fertilizing  material  of  leaves  also  adds 
essentially  to  the  enriching  qualities  of  the  manure- 
heap.  Gardeners  prize  highly  a  compost  made  in 
part  of  decomposed  leaves.  The  leaf -harvest  is  the 
last  harvest  of  the  year,  and  should  be  thoroughly 
attended  to  at  the  proper  time. 

The  leisure  of  the  season  gave  us  greater  opportu- 
nity for  intercourse,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  The 
city  was  comparatively  at  our  door,  as  accessible 
as  ever — we  were  really  mere  suburbans.  We  ran 
down  in  an  hour  to  be  spectators  of.  any  unusual 
sight,  and  frequently  attended  the  evening  lectures 
of  distinguished  men.  It  was  impossible  for  the 
world  to  sweep  on,  leading  us  to  stagnate.  How 
different  this  winter  seemed  to  me  from  any  pre- 
ceding one  !  Formerly,  this  long  season  had  been 
one  of  constant  toiling ;  now,  it  was  one  of  almost 
uninterrupted  recreation.  How  different  the  path 
I  travelled  from  that  in  which  ambition  hurries  for- 
ward— too  narrow  for  friendship,  too  crooked  for 
love,  too  rugged  for  honesty,  and  too  dark  for  sci- 
ence !  Thus,  if  we  choose,  we  may  sandwich  in  the 
poetry  with  the  prose  of  life.  Thus,  many  a  dainty 
happiness  and  relishing  enjoyment  may  come  be- 
tween the  slices  of  every-day  work,  if  we  only  so 
determine. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  163 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MY  SECOND  YEAR — TRENCHING  THE  GARDEN — STRAW- 
BERRY   PROFITS. 

Winter  having  passed  away,  the  time  for  labor 
and  the  singing  of  birds  again  returned.  Long 
before  the  land  in  Pennsylvania  was  fit  to  plough, 
the  admirable  soil  of  New  Jersey  had  been  turned 
over,  and  planted  with  early  peas.  One  of  its  most 
valuable  peculiarities  is  that  of  being  at  all  times  fit 
for  ploughing,  except  when  actually  frozen  hard. 
Even  after  heavy  rains,  when  denser  soils  require 
a  fortnight's  drying  before  getting  into  condition  for 
the  plough,  this  is  ready  in  a  day  or  two.  Its  sandy 
character,  instead  of  being  a  disadvantage,  is  one  of 
its  highest  recommendations.  It  is  thus  two  to 
three  weeks  earlier  in  yielding  up  its  ripened  prod- 
ucts for  market.  Peas  are  the  first  things  planted 
in  the  open  fields.  The  traveller  coming  from  the 
north,  when  passing  by  rail  to  Philadelphia  through 
this  genial  region,  has  been  frequently  surprised 
at  seeing  the  young  pea- vines  peeping  up  above  a 
thin  covering  of  snow,  their  long  rows  of  delicate 
green  stretching  across  extensive  fields,  and  present- 
ing a  singular  contrast  with  the  fleecy  covering 
around  them.    Naturally  hardy,  they  survive  the 


164  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

cold,  and  as  the  snow  rapidly  disappears  they  imme- 
diately renew  their  growth. 

Having  been  much  surprised  by  the  profit  yielded 
last  year  from  the  garden,  I  was  determined  to  give 
it  a  better  chance  than  ever,  and  to  try  the  effect  of 
thorough  farming  on  a  limited  scale.  I  accordingly 
set  Dick  to  covering  it  fully  three  inches  deep  with 
well-rotted  stable-manure,  of  which  I  had  purchased 
in  the  city  my  usual  quantity,  $200  worth,  though 
hoping  that  I  could  so  contrive  it  hereafter  as  not 
to  be  obliged  to  make  so  heavy  a  cash  outlay  for 
this  material.  I  then  procured  him  a  spade  fifteen 
inches  long  in  the  blade,  and  set  him  to  trenching 
every  inch  of  it  not  occupied  by  standard  fruits. 
These  had  luckily  been  arranged  in  rows  in  borders 
by  themselves,  thus  leaving  large,  open  beds,  in 
which  the  operation  of  trenching  could  be  thoroughly 
practised.  I  estimated  the  open  ground  to  be  very 
nearly  half  an  acre.  I  began  by  digging  a  trench 
from  one  end  of  the  open  space  to  the  other,  three 
feet  wide  and  two  deep,  removing  the  earth  to  the 
further  side  of  the  open  space.  Then  the  bottom 
of  the  trench  was  dug  up  with  the  fifteen-inch  spade, 
and  then  covered  lightly  with  manure. 

The  adjoining  ground  was  then  thrown  in,  mixing 
the  top  soil  as  we  went  along,  and  also  abundance 
of  manure,  until  the  trench  was  filled.  As  the  earth 
thus  used  was  all  taken  from  the  adjoining  strip  of 
three  feet  wide,  of  course,  when  the  trench  was  full, 
another  of  corresponding  size  appeared  beside  it. 
With  this  the  operation  was  repeated  until  all  the 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  165 

garden  had  been  thoroughly  gone  over.  The  earth 
which  had  been  removed  from  the  first  trench,  went 
into  the  last  one.  But  I  was  careful  not  to  place 
the  top  soil  in  a  body  at  the  bottom,  but  scattered 
it  well  through  the  whole  of  the'  filling.  If  rich, 
the  roots  of  every  plant  would  find  some  portion  of 
it,  let  them  travel  where  they  might.  On  the  whole 
job  we  bestowed  a  great  amount  of  care,  but  it  was 
such  a  job  as  would  not  require  repeating  for  years, 
and  would  be  permanently  beneficial.  I  thus  depos- 
ited $50  worth  of  manure,  as  a  fund  of  nourishment 
on  which  my  vegetables  could  for  a  long  time  draw 
with  certainty  of  profit. 

Now,  a  surface  soil  of  a  few  inches  only,  will  not 
answer  for  a  good  garden.  The  roots  of  succulent 
vegetables  must  extend  into  a  deeper  bed  of  fertil- 
ity ;  and  a  greater  depth  of  pulverization  is  required 
to  absorb  surplus  rains,  and  to  give  off  the  accumu- 
lated moisture  in  dry  weather.  A  shallow  soil  will 
become  deluged  by  a  single  shower,  because  the  hard 
subsoil  will  not  allow  it  to  pass  downward ;  and 
again,  in  the  heat  and  drought  of  midsummer,  a 
thin  stratum  is  made  dry  and  parched  in  a  week, 
while  one  of  greater  depth  becomes  scarcely  affected. 
I  might  cite  numerous  instances,  besides  my  own, 
where  trenched  gardens  remained  in  the  finest  state 
of  luxuriance  during  the  most  severe  droughts,  when 
others  under  ordinary  management  were  nearly 
burnt  up  with  the  heat,  growth  having  quite  ceased, 
and  leaves  curled  and  withering  for  want  of  moist- 
ure. 


166  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

The  mode  of  trenching  must  vary  with  circum- 
stances. In  small,  circumscribed  pieces  of  ground, 
neeccssity  requires  it  to  be  done  by  hand,  as  has  been 
just  described.  In  large  spaces  the  subsoil  plough 
may  be  used,  but  not  to  equal  benefit.  There  are 
many  reasons  why  the  soils  of  gardens  should  be 
made  better  than  for  ordinary  farm-crops.  Most  of 
the  products  of  gardens  are  of  a  succulent  nature,  or 
will  otherwise  bear  high  feeding,  such  as  garden 
roots  in  general,  plants  whose  leaves  furnish  food, 
as  salad,  cabbages,  etc.,  or  those  which  produce  large 
and  succulent  fruits,  as  cucumbers,  melons,  squashes, 
etc.  As  nearly  all  garden  crops  are  the  immediate 
food  of  man,  while  many  farm-crops  are  only  the 
coarser  food  of  animals,  greater  care  and  skill  may 
properly  be  applied  in  bringing  the  former  forward 
to  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  The  great  amount 
of  family  supplies  which  may  be  obtained  from  a 
half- acre  garden,  provided  the  best  soil  is  prepared 
for  their  growth,  renders  it  a  matter  of  equal  im- 
portance and  economy  to  give  the  soil  the  very  best 
preparation. 

It  rarely  happens  that  there  is  much  selection  to 
be  made  in  soils  as  we  find  them  in  nature,  for  gar- 
dening purposes,  unless  particular  attention  is  given 
to  the  subject  in  choosing  a  site  for  a  new  dwelling. 
Generally,  we  have  to  take  the  land  as  we  find  it. 
Unless,  therefore,  we  happen  to  find  it  just  right, 
we  should  endeavor  to  improve  it  in  the  best  man- 
ner. The  principal  means  for  making  a  perfect 
garden  soil,  are  draining,  trenching,  and  manuring. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  167 

Now,  let  none  be  startled  at  the  outset  with  the  fear 
of  cost,  in  thus  preparing  the  soil.     The  entire  ex- 
pense of  preparing  half  an  acre  would  not,  in  gen- 
eral, amount  to  more  than  the  amount  saved  in  a  single 
year  in  the  purchase  of  food  for  family  supplies,  by 
the  fine  and  abundant  vegetables  afforded.     If  the 
owner  cannot  possibly  prepare  his  half  or  quarter 
acre  of  land  properly,  then  let  him  occupy  the  ground 
with  something  else  than  garden  crops,  and   take 
only  a    single  square   rod    (if  he  cannot  attend  to 
more),  and  give  this  the  most  perfect  preparation. 
A  square  rod  of  rich,  luxuriant  vegetables,  will  be 
found  more  valuable  than  eighty  rods,  or  half  an 
acre  of  scant,  dwarfed,  and  stringy  growth,  which 
no  one  will  wish  to  eat ;  while  the  extra  cost  and 
labor  spent  on  the  eighty  rods  in  seeds,  digging,  and 
hoeing,  would  have  been  more  than  sufficient  to 
prepare  the  smaller  plot  in  the  most  complete  man- 
ner.  Let  the  determination  be  made,  therefore,  at  the 
commencement,  to  take  no  more  land  than  can  be 
properly  prepared,  and  in  the  most  thorough  manner. 
The  ten  peach-trees  in  the  garden  were  thoroughly 
manured  by  digging  in  around  them  all  the   coal 
ashes    made   during  the  winter,  first  sifting  them 
well.    No  stable  manure  was  added,  as  it  promotes 
too  rank  and  watery  a  growth  in  the  peach,  while 
ashes  of  any  kind  are  what  this  fruit  most  delights 
in.    Then  the  butts  were  examined  for  worms,  but 
the  last  year's  application  of  tar  had  kept  off  the  fly, 
and  the  old  ravages  of  the  enemy  were  found  to  be 
nearly  healed  over  by  the  growth  of  new  bark.    A 


108  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

fresh  coating  of  tar  was  applied,  and  thus  every 
thing  was  made  safe. 

As  the  season  advanced,  my  wife  and  daughter 
took  charge  of  the  garden,  as  usual,  and  with  high 
hopes  of  greater  success  than  ever.  They  had  had 
one  year's  experience,  while  now  the  ground  was  in 
far  better  condition.  Moreover,  they  seemed  to  have 
forgotten  all  about  the  weeds,  as  in  calculating  their 
prospective  profits  they  did  not  mention  them  even 
once.  I  was  careful  not  to  do  so,  though  I  had  my 
own  suspicions  on  the  subject.  When  the  planting 
had  been  done,  and  things  went  on  growing  finely 
as  the  season  advanced,  they  were  suddenly  re- 
minded of  their  ancient  enemy.  The  trenching  and 
manuring  had  done  as  much  for  the  weeds  as  for  the 
vegetables.  Why  should  they  not  ?  In  her  inno- 
cency,  Kate  thought  the  weeds  should  all  have  been 
buried  in  the  trenches,  as  if  their  seeds  had  been 
deposited  exclusively  on  the  surface.  But  they 
grew  more  rampantly  than  ever  during  the  entire 
season,  and  to  my  mind  they  seemed  to  be  in  greater 
quantity.  But  the  fact  worked  no  discouragement 
to  either  wife  or  daughter.  They  waged  against 
them  the  same  resolute  warfare,  early,  late,  and  in 
the  noonday  sun,  until  Kate,  in  spite  of  a  capacious 
sunbonnet,  became  a  nut-brown  maid.  Not  a  weed 
was  permitted  to  flourish  to  maturity. 

The  careful  culture  of  the  garden  this  year  gave 
them  even  a  better  reward  than  it  had  done  the  year 
before.  The  failures  of  the  last  season  were  all 
avoided.     Several  kinds  of  seeds  were  soaked  before 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  169 

being  planted,  which  prevented  failure  and  secured 
a  quicker  growth.  In  addition  to  this,  they  raised  a 
greater  variety  of  vegetables  expressly  for  the  store  ; 
and  with  some,  such  as  radishes  and  beets,  they  were 
particularly  lucky,  and  realized  high  prices  for  all 
they  had  to  dispose  of.  Then  the  high  manuring 
and  extra  care  bestowed  upon  the  asparagus  were 
apparent  in  the  quick  and  vigorous  shooting  up  of 
thick  and  tender  roots,  far  more  than  we  could  con- 
sume, and  so  superior  to  any  others  that  were  taken 
to  the  store,  that  they  sold  rapidly  at  city  prices. 
Thus  they  began  to  make  sales  earlier  in  the  season, 
while  their  crops  were  far  more  abundant.  The 
trenching  and  manuring  was  evidently  a  paying  in- 
vestment. In  addition  to  all  this,  the  season  proved 
to  be  a  good  one  for  fruit.  The  garden  trees  bore 
abundantly.  My  ten  peach-trees  had  by  this  time 
been  rejuvenated,  and  were  loaded  with  fruit. 
When  as  large  as  hickory  nuts,  I  began  the  opera- 
tion of  removing  all  the  smallest,  and  of  thinning 
out  unsparingly  wherever  they  were  excessively 
crowded.  After  going  over  five  trees,  I  brought  a 
bucketful  of  the  expurgated  peaches  to  my  wife  for 
exhibition.  She  seemed  panic-stricken  at  the  sight 
— protested  that  we  should  have  no  peaches  that  sea- 
son, if  I  went  on  at  that  rate — besought  me  to  re- 
member my  peculiar  weakness  for  pies — and  pleaded 
so  eloquently  that  the  other  trees  should  not  be 
stripped,  as  to  induce  me,  much  against  my  judg- 
ment, to  suspend  my  ravages.  Thus  five  had  been 
thinned  and  five  left  untouched. 


170  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

At  the  moment,  I  regretted  her  interference,  but 
as  compliance  with  her  wishes  always  brought  to 
me  its  own  gratification,  if  not  in  one  way,  then  in 
some  other,  so  it  did  in  this  instance.  In  the  first 
place,  the  peaches  on  the  five  denuded  trees  grew 
prodigiously  larger  and  finer  than  those  on  the  other 
five.  I  gathered  them  carefully  and  sent  them  to 
the  city,  where  they  brought  me  $41  clear  of  ex- 
penses, while  the  fruit  from  the  other  trees,  sent  to 
market  with  similar  care,  netted  only  117,  and  those 
used  in  the  family  from  the  same  trees,  estimated  at 
the  same  rates,  were  worth  19,  making,  on  those 
five,  a  difference  of  $15  in  favor  of  thinning.  Thus, 
the  ten  produced  $58  ;  but  if  all  had  been  thinned, 
the  product  would  have  been  $82. 

This  unexpected  result  satisfied  my  wife  ever 
afterwards  that  it  was  quality,  and  not  mere  quantity 
that  the  market  wanted.  Her  own  garden  sales 
would  have  convinced  her  of  this,  had  she  observed 
them  closely ;  but  having  overlooked  results  there,  it 
required  an  illustration  too  striking  to  be  gainsayed, 
and  this  the  peach-trees  furnished.  All  these  fig- 
ures appear  in  Kate's  account-book.  I  had  pro- 
vided her  with  one  expressly  for  the  garden  oper- 
ations, a  nice  gold  pen,  and  every  other  possible  con- 
venience for  making  entries  at  the  moment  any 
transaction  occurred.  I  had  also  taught  her  the  sim- 
plest form  for  keeping  her  accounts,  and  caused  her 
to  keep  a  pass-book  with  the  store,  in  which  every 
consignment  should  be  entered,  so  that  her  book  and 
the  storekeeper's  should   be  a  check  on  errors  that 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  171 

might  be  found  in  either.  She  thus  became  ex- 
tremely expert  at  her  accounts,  and  as  she  took 
especial  interest  in  the  matter,  could  tell  from 
memory,  at  the  week's  end,  how  many  dollars'  worth 
of  produce  she  had  sold.  I  found  the  amount  run- 
ning up  quite  hopefully  as  the  season  advanced,  and 
when  it  had  closed,  she  announced  the  total  to  be 
$63  without  the  peaches,  or  $121  by  including  them. 
But  she  had  paid  some  money  for  seeds  ;  as  an  offset 
to  which,  no  cash  had  been  expended  in  digging,  as 
Dick  and  myself  had  done  it  all. 

So  much  for  the  garden  this  year.  On  my  nine 
acres  of  ploughed  land  there  was  plenty  of  work  to 
be  done.  Our  old  enemy,  the  weeds,  did  not  seem 
to  have  diminished  in  number,  notwithstanding  our 
slaughter  the  previous  year.  They  came  up  as  thick 
and  vigorous  as  ever,  and  required  quite  as  much 
labor  to  master  them,  as  the  hoe  was  oftener  re- 
quired among  the  rows  of  raspberries  and  straw- 
berries. My  dogged  fellow,  Dick,  took  this  matter 
with  perfect  unconcern — said  he  knew  it  would  be 
so,  and  that  I  would  find  the  weeds  could  not  be 
killed — but  he  might  as  well  work  among  them  as 
at  anything  else.  I  ceased  to  argue  with  him  on  the 
subject,  and  as  I  had  full  faith  in  coming  out  right 
in  the  end,  was  content  to  silently  bide  my  time. 

This  year  I  planted  an  acre  with  tomatoes,  having 
raised  abundance  of  fine  plants  in  a  hotbed,  as  well 
as  egg-plants  for  the  garden.  I  set  them  out  in 
rows,  three  and  one-half  feet  apart  each  way,  and 
manured  them  well,  twice  as  heavily  as  many  of  my 


172  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

neighbors  did.  This  gave  me  3,760  plants  to  the 
acre.  The  product  was  almost  incredible,  and 
amounted  to  501  bushels,  or  about  five  quarts  a  hill, 
a  far  better  yield  than  I  had  had  the  first  year. 
From  some  hills  as  many  as  ten  quarts  each  were 
gathered.  I  managed  to  get  twenty  baskets  into 
New  York  market  among  the  very  first  of  the  sea- 
son, where  they  netted  me  $60.  The  next  twenty 
netted  125,  the  next  twenty  only  $15,  as  numerous 
competitors  came  in,  and  the  next  thirty  cleared  no 
more.  After  that  the  usual  glut  came  on,  and  down 
went  the  price  to  twenty  and  even  fifteen  cents. 
But  at  twenty  and  twenty-five  I  continued  to  for- 
ward to  Philadelphia,  where  they  paid  better  than 
to  let  them  rot  on  the  ground.  From  200  baskets 
at  these  low  prices  I  netted  $35.  Then,  in  the 
height  of  the  season,  all  picking  was  suspended,  ex- 
cept for  the  pigs,  who  thus  had  any  quantity  they 
could  consume.  But  the  glut  gradually  subsided  as 
tomatoes  perished  on  the  vines,  and  the  price  again 
rose  in  market  to  twenty-five  cents,  then  to  fifty, 
then  to  a  dollar,  and  upwards.  But  my  single  acre 
afforded  me  but  few  at  the  close  of  the  season.  I 
did  not  manage  to  realize  $40  from  the  fag-end  of 
the  year,  making  a  total  net  yield  of  $190. 

Others  near  me,  older  hands  at  the  business,  did 
much  better,  but  I  thought  this  well  enough.  I 
would  prefer  raising  tomatoes  at  37  cents  a  bushel 
to  potatoes  at  75.  The  amount  realized  from  an 
acre  far  exceeds  that  of  potatoes.  A  smart  man  will 
gather  from  sixty  to  seventy  bushels  a  day.    The 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  173 

expense  of  cultivating,  using  plenty  of  manure,  is 
about  $60  per  acre,  and  the  gross  yield  may  be  safely 
calculated  $260,  leaving  about  $200  sure  surplus. 
If  it  were  not  for  the  sudden  and  tremendous  fall  in 
prices  to  which  tomatoes  are  subject  soon  after  they 
come  into  market,  growers  might  become  rich  in  a 
few  years. 

The  other  acre  was  occupied  with  corn,  roots,  and 
cabbage,  for  winter  feeding,  with  potatoes  for  family 
use.  Turnips  were  sowed  wherever  room  could  be 
found  for  them,  and  no  spot  about  the  farm  was  per- 
mitted to  remain  idle.  A  hill  of  corn,  a  cabbage,  a 
pumpkin- vine,  or  whatever  else  was  suited  to  it,  was 
planted.  But  of  potatoes  we  did  sell  enough  to 
amount  to  $24.  On  the  acre  occupied  with  black- 
berries, early  cabbages  were  planted  to  the  number 
of  4,000.  Many  of  these,  of  course,  were  small  and 
not  marketable,  though  well  manured  and  carefully 
attended.  But  all  such  were  very  acceptable  in  the 
barnyard  and  pig-pen.  Of  sound  cabbages  I  sold 
3,120,  at  an  average  of  two  and  one-quarter  cents, 
amounting  to  $70.20.  I  cannot  tell  how  it  was,  but 
other  persons  close  to  me  raised  larger  and  better 
heads,  and  of  course  realized  better  prices.  But  I 
had  no  reason  to  complain. 

The  strawberries  came  first  into  market.  I  had 
labored  to  allow  no  runners  to  grow  and  take  root 
except  such  as  were  necessary  to  fill  up  the  line  of 
each  row.  Most  of  the  others  had  been  clipped  off 
as  fast  as  they  showed  themselves.  Thus  the  whole 
strength  of  the  plant  was  concentrated  into  the  fruit. 


174  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

In  other  words,  I  set  out  to  raise  fruit,  not  plants ; 
and  my  rows  were,  therefore,  composed  of  single 
stools,  standing  about  four  to  six  inches  apart  in  the 
row.  The  ground  between  the  rows  was  conse- 
quently clear  for  the  passage  of  the  horse- weeder, 
which  kept  it  nice  and  clean  throughout  the  season, 
while  there  was  no  sort  of  difficulty  in  getting  be- 
tween the  stools  with  either  the  hand,  or  a  small 
hoe,  to  keep  out  grass  and  weeds.  The  stools  were 
consequently  strong  and  healthy,  and  stood  up 
higher  from  the  ground  than  plants  which  grow  in 
matted  beds,  thus  measurably  keeping  clear  of  the 
sand  and  grit  which  heavy  rains  throw  up  on  berries 
that  lie  very  near  the  ground.  The  truth  is,  the 
ground  for  a  foot  all  round  each  stool  ought  to  have 
had  a  covering  of  cut  straw,  leaves,  or  something 
else  for  the  fruit  to  rest  upon,  thus  to  keep  them 
clean,  as  well  as  to  preserve  them  from  drought. 
But  I  did  not  so  well  understand  the  question  at 
that  time  as  I  do  now. 

The  fruit  ripened  beautifully,  and  grew  to  prodi- 
gious size,  larger  than  most  we  had  ever  seen.  The 
several  pickings  of  the  first  week  yielded  600  quart 
boxes  of  the  choicest  fruit,  which  I  dispatched  by 
railroad  to  an  agent  in  New  York,  with  whom  I  had 
previously  made  arrangements  to  receive  them. 
The  greatest  care  was  used  in  preparing  them  for 
market.  When  taken  from  the  vines  they  were  put 
directly  into  the  small  boxes,  and  these  carried  to 
the  house,  where,  under  a  large  shed  adjoining  the 
kitchen,  my  wife  and  daughters  had  made  prepara- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  175 

tions  to  receive  them.  Here  they  were  spread  out 
on  a  large  pine  table,  and  all  the  larger  berries  sepa- 
rated from  the  smaller  ones,  each  kind  being  put 
into  boxes  which  were  kept  separate  from  the  other. 
The  show  made  by  fruit  thus  assorted  was  truly 
magnificent,  and  to  the  pleasure  my  wife  experi- 
enced in  handling  and  arranging  it,  she  was  con- 
stantly testifying.  Thus  600  quarts  of  the  finest 
fruit  we  had  ever  beheld,  were  sent  the  first  week 
to  New  York.  It  was,  of  course,  nearly  ten  days 
ahead  of  the  season  in  that  region — there  could  be 
no  New  York  grown  berries  in  market.  At  the 
week's  end  the  agent  remitted  me  $300  clear  of 
freight  and  commission  !  They  had  netted  me  half 
a  dollar  a  quart.  I  confess  to  having  been  greatly 
astonished  and  delighted — it  was  certainly  twice  as 
much  as  we  had  expected.  When  I  showed  the 
agent's  letter  to  my  wife,  she  was  quite  amazed. 
Kate,  who  had  heard  a  good  deal  of  complaint  about 
high  prices,  while  we  lived  in  the  city>  after  reading 
the  letter,  laid  it  down,  observing — 

"  I  think  it  will  not  do  to  complain  of  high  prices 
now ! " 

"No," replied  my  wife,  "the  tables  are  turned. 
Half  a  dollar  a  quart !  How  much  I  pity  those  poor 
people." 

And  as  she  said  this,  I  handed  her  a  quart  bowl 
of  the  luscious  fruit,  which  I  had  been  sugaring 
heavily  while  she  was  studying  out  the  figures  in 
the  agent's  letter,  and  I  feel  persuaded  no  lover  of 


176  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

strawberries  ever  consumed  them  with  a  more 
smacking  relish. 

The  agent  spoke  in  his  letter  of  the  admirable 
manner  in  which  our  berries  were  forwarded — all 
alike,  all  uniformly  prime  large  fruit — not  merely 
big  ones  on  top  of  the  box  as  decoys,  and  as  the 
prelude  to  finding  none  but  little  runts  at  bottom. 
This  established  for  us  a  reputation;  our  boxes 
could  be  guaranteed  to  contain  prime  fruit  all 
through.  Hence  the  agent  could  sell  any  quantity 
we  could  send.  Indeed,  it  was  impossible  to  send 
him  too  much.  Thus  we  continued  to  pick  over 
our  vines  from  three  to  four  times  weekly.  As  the 
ripening  of  the  fruit  went  on,  the  sight  was  truly 
marvellous  to  look  at.  When  the  season  was  at  its 
height,  the  ground  seemed  almost  red  with  berries. 
Then  the  famous  doctrine  of  squatter  sovereignty 
was  effectually  carried  out  on  my  premises,  for 
there  were  twenty  girls  and  boys  upon  their  knees 
or  hams,  engaged  in  picking  berries  at  two  cents  a 
quart.  Industrious  little  toilers  they  were,  many 
of  them  earning  from  one  to  two  dollars  daily. 
Some  pickers  were  women  grown,  some  widows, 
some  even  aged  women.  It  was  a  harvest  to  them 
also. 

The  small  boxes  were  packed  in  chests  each 
holding  from  twenty-four  to  sixty,  just  nicely  filling 
the  chest,  so  that  there  should  be  no  rattling  or 
shaking  about,  or  spilling  over  of  the  fruit.  The 
lid,  when  shut  down  and  fastened,  held  all  snug. 
These  chests  were  taken  to  the  railroad  station  close 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  177 

by,  the  same  afternoon  the  berries  were  picked,  and 
reached  New  York  the  same  night.  The  agents 
knowing  they  were  coming,  had  them  all  sold  before 
they  arrived,  and  immediately  delivering  them  to 
the  purchasers,  they  in  turn  delivered  them  to  their 
customers,  and  thus  in  less  than  twenty-four 
hours  from  the  time  of  leaving  my  ground,  they 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  consumers.  This  whole 
business  of  conveying  fruit  to  distant  markets  by 
steamboat  and  rail,  is  thoroughly  systematized.  It 
is  an  immense  item  in  the  general  freight-list  of  the 
great  seaboard  railroads,  constantly  growing,  and 
as  surely  enriching  both  grower  and  carrier.  For 
the  former  it  insures  a  sale  of  all  his  products  in 
the  highest  markets,  and  in  fact  brings  them  to  his 
very  door. 

Before  the  building  of  the  Camden  and  Amboy 
Railroad  no  such  facilities  existed,  and  consequently 
not  a  tenth  of  the  fruit  and  truck  now  raised  in 
New  Jersey  was  then  produced.  But  an  outlet 
being  thus  established,  production  commenced. 
Farms  were  manured,  their  yield  increased,  and  sta- 
tions for  the  receipt  of  freight  were  built  at  every 
few  miles  along  the  railroad.  They  continue  to 
increase  in  number  up  to  this  day.  Lands  rose  in 
value,  better  fences  were  supplied,  new  houses  built, 
and  the  whole  system  of  county  roads  was  revolu- 
tionized. As  everything  that  could  be  raised  now 
found  a  cash  market,  so  every  convenience  for  get- 
ting it  there  was  attended  to.  Hence,  gravel  turn- 
pikes were  built,  which,  stretching  back  into  the 
12 


178  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

country,  enabled  growers  at  all  seasons  to  transport 
their  products  over  smooth  roads  to  the  nearest  sta- 
tion. These  numerous  feeders  to  the  great  railroad 
caused  the  income  from  way-traffic  to  increase  enor- 
mously. All  interests  were  signally  benefited,  and 
a  new  career  of  improvement  for  New  Jersey  was  in- 
augurated. The  farmers  became  rich  on  lands  which 
for  generations  had  kept  their  former  owners  poor. 
My  agents  were  punctual  in  advising  me  by  the 
first  mail,  and  sometimes  by  telegraph,  of  the  sale 
and  price  of  each  consignment,  thus  keeping  me  con- 
stantly posted  up  as  to  the  condition  of  the  market. 
They  paid  the  freight  on  each  consignment,  de- 
ducted it  from  the  proceeds,  and  returned  the 
chests,  though  sometimes  with  a  few  small  boxes 
missing,  a  loss  to  which  growers  seem  to  be  regu- 
larly subjected,  so  long  as  they  use  a  box  which 
they  cannot  afford  to  give  away  with  the  fruit.  I 
thus  fed  the  northern  cities  as  long  as  the  price 
was  maintained.  But,  as  is  the  case  with  all  mar- 
ket produce,  prices  gradually  declined  as  other 
growers  came  in,  for  all  hands  sought  to  sell  in  the 
best  market.  As  the  end  of  the  season  is  generally 
a  period  of  very  low  prices,  it  must  be  counteracted 
by  every  effort  to  secure  high  ones  at  the  beginning, 
in  this  way  maintaining  a  remunerative  average  dur- 
ing the  whole.  Thus,  the  half  dollar  per  quart 
which  I  obtained  for  the  first  and  best,  by  equaliza- 
tion with  lower  prices  through  the  remainder  of  the 
season,  was  unable  to  raise  the  average  of  the  whole 
crop  above  sixteen  cents  net.     But  this  abundantly 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  I79 

satisfied  me,  as  I  sent  to  market  5,360  quarts,  thus 
producing  $857.60. 

Besides  these,  we  had  the  satisfaction  of  making 
generous  presents  to  some  particular  friends  in  the 
city,  while  at  home  we  rioted  upon  them  daily,  and 
laid  by  an  extraordinary  quantity  in  the  shape  of 
preserves  for  winter  use,  a  luxury  which  we  had 
never  indulged  in  during  our  residence  in  the  city. 
I  may  add  that  during  the  whole  strawberry  season 
it  was  observed  that  our  city  friends  seemed  to  take 
an  extraordinary  interest  in  our  proceedings  and 
success.  They  came  up  to  see  us  even  more  numer- 
ously than  during  the  dog-days,  and  no  great  effort 
was  required,  no  second  invitation  necessary,  to 
induce  them  to  prolong  their  visits.  But  we  con- 
sidered them  entirely  excusable,  as  the  strawberries 
and  cream  were  not  only  unexceptionable,  but 
abundant.  However,  I  must  confess,  that  in  the 
busiest  part  of  the  season  our  female  visitors  rolled 
up  their  sleeves,  and  fell  to  with  my  wife  and  daugh- 
ters for  hours  at  a  time,  aiding  them  in  assorting 
and  boxing  the  huge  quantities  of  noble  fruit  as  it 
came  in  from  the  field. 

In  order  to  send  this  fruit  to  market,  I  was  obliged 
to  purchase  3,000  quart  boxes,  and  50  chests  to  con- 
tain them.  These  cost  me  $200.  I  could  not  fill  all 
the  boxes  at  each  picking,  but  as  one  set  of  boxes 
was  away  off  in  market,  it  was  necessary  for  me  to 
have  duplicates  on  hand,  in  which  to  pick  other 
berries  as  they  ripened,  without  being  compelled 
to  wait  until  the  first  lot  of  boxes  came  back. 


180  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

Sometimes  it  was  a  week  or  ten  days  before  they 
were  returned  to  me,  according  as  the  agent  was 
prompt  or  dilatory.  Thus,  one  supply  of  boxes 
filled  with  fruit  was  constantly  going  forward,  while 
another  of  empty  ones  was  on  the  way  back.  So 
extensive  has  this  berry  business  become,  that  I 
could  name  parties  who  have  as  much  as  $500  to 
$1,500  invested  in  chests  and  boxes  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  fruit  to  market.  But  their  profits  are 
in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  their  investment. 

While  on  this  subject  of  boxes  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  fruit  to  distant  markets,  a  suggestion  occurs 
to  me  which  some  ingenious  man  may  be  able  to 
work  up  into  profitable  use.  It  is  sometimes  quite 
a  trouble  for  the  grower  to  get  his  chests  returned 
at  the  proper  time.  Sometimes  the  agent  is  careless 
and  inattentive,  keeps  them  twice  as  many  days 
as  he  ought  to,  when  the  owner  really  needs  them. 
Sometimes  an  accident  on  the  railroad  delays  their 
return  for  a  week  or  ten  days.  In  either  case,  the 
grower  is  subjected  to  great  inconvenience ;  and  if 
his  chests  fail  to  return  at  all,  his  ripened  fruit  will 
perish  on  his  hands  for  want  of  boxes  in  which  to 
send  them  off.  It  is  to  be  always  safe  from  these 
contingencies  that  he  finds  it  necessary  to  keep  so 
large  a  quantity  on  hand.  Then,  many  of  the  boxes 
are  never  returned,  the  chests  coming  back  only 
half  or  quarter  filled.  All  this  is  very  unjustly 
made  the  grower's  loss. 

But  a  remedy  for  this  evil  can  and  ought  to  be 
be  provided.    The  trade  needs  for  its  use  a  box  so 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  181 

cheap  that  it  can  afford  to  give  it  away.  Then, 
being  packed  in  rough,  open  crates,  cheaply  put 
together  of  common  lath,  with  latticed  sides,  neither 
crates  nor  boxes  need  be  returned.  The  grower  will 
save  the  return-freight,  and  be  in  no  danger  of  ever 
being  short  of  boxes  by  the  negligence  of  others. 
This  is  really  a  very  urgent  want  of  the  trade.  The 
agent  sells  by  wholesale  to  the  retailer,  who  takes 
the  chest  to  his  stand  or  store,  where  he  sells  the 
contents,  one  or  more  boxes  to  each  customer. 
These  sometimes  have  no  baskets  with  them  in 
which  to  empty  the  berries,  and  so  the  retailer, 
to  insure  a  sale,  permits  the  buyer  to  carry  off  the 
boxes,  and  the  latter  neglects  to  return  them.  In 
the  same  way  they  are  sent  to  hotels  and  boarding- 
houses,  where  they  are  lost  by  hundreds.  Again, 
the  obligation  imposed  on  a  buyer  to  return  the 
boxes  to  a  retailer,  is  constantly  preventing  hun- 
dreds of  chance  purchasers  of  rare  fruit  from  taking 
it ;  but  if  the  seller  could  say  to  him  that  the  box 
goes  with  the  fruit,  and  need  not  be  returned,  the 
mere  convenience  of  the  thing  would  be  sufiBcient  to 
determine  the  sale  of  large  quantities, — the  pur- 
chaser would  carry  it  home  in  his  hand. 

The  maker  of  a  cheap  box  like  this  would  find  the 
sale  almost  indefinite.  It  would  be  constant,  and 
annually  increasing.  The  same  buyers  would  re- 
quire fresh  supplies  every  season.  A  mere  chip 
box,  rounded  out  of  a  single  shaving,  and  just 
stiff  enough  to  prevent  the  sides  from  collapsing, 
would  answer  every  purpose.    The  pill-boxes  which 


182  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

are  made  from  shavings  may  serve  as  the  model. 
Here  is  a  great  and  growing  want,  which  our  coun- 
trymen are  abundantly  able  to  supply,  and  to  which 
some  of  them  cannot  too  soon  direct  their  attention. 
If  the  cost  of  transmitting  the  boxes  to  the  buyers  be 
too  great  for  so  cheap  a  contrivance,  then  let  the 
shavings  be  manufactured  of  the  exact  size  required, 
and  delivered  in  a  flat  state  to  the  buyer,  with  the 
circular  bottom,  by  him  to  be  put  together  during 
the  leisure  days  of  winter.  A  single  touch  of  glue 
will  hold  the  shaving  in  position,  and  a  couple  of 
tacks  will  keep  the  bottom  in  its  place.  The  whole 
affair  being  for  temporary  use,  need  be  nothing 
more  than  temporary  itself.  A  portion  of  the  labor 
of  manufacturing  being  done  by  the  grower,  will 
reduce  the  cost.  If  constructed  as  suggested,  such 
boxes  would  be  quite  as  neat  as  the  majority  now  in 
use,  while  they  would  possess  the  charm  of  always 
being  clean  and  sweet.  Our  country  is  at  this 
moment  full  of  machinery  exactly  fitted  to  produce 
them,  much  of  it  located  in  regions  where  timber 
and  power  are  obtainable  at  the  minimum  eost. 
The  suggestion  should  be  appropriated  by  its  own- 
ers at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  I83 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

RASPBERRIES THE    LAWTONS. 

To  strawberries  succeeded  raspberries.  My  stock 
of  boxes  was  thus  useful  a  second  time.  But  rasp- 
berries are  not  always  reliable  for  a  full  crop  the  first 
season  after  planting,  and  so  it  turned  out  with  mine. 
They  bore  only  moderately ;  but  by  exercising  the 
same  care  in  rejecting  all  inferior  specimens,  the  first 
commanded  twenty- five  cents  a  quart  in  market ; 
gradually  declining  to  twelve,  below  which  none 
were  sold.  I  marketed  only  242  quarts  from  the 
whole,  netting  an  average  of  16  cents  a  quart,  or 
$38.72.  In  price  they  were  thus  equal  to  straw- 
berries. In  addition  to  this,  we  consumed  in  the 
family  as  much  as  all  desired,  and  that  was  not 
small.  I  had  heard  of  others  doing  considerably 
better  than  this,  but  had  no  disposition  to  be  dis- 
satisfied. 

The  trade  in  raspberries  is  increasing  rapidly  in 
the  neighborhood  of  all  our  large  cities,  stimulated 
by  the  establishment  of  steamboats  and  railroads,  on 
which  they  go  so  quickly  and  cheaply  to  market.  It 
is  probably  greater  in  New  York  State  than  else- 
where. The  citizens  of  Marlborough,  in  Ulster 
county,  have   a  steamboat  regularly  employed  for 


184  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

almost  the  sole  business  of  transporting  their  rasp- 
berries to  New  York.  In  a  single  season  their  sales 
of  this  fruit  amount  to  nearly  190,000.  The  demand 
is  inexhaustible,  and  the  cultivation  consequently 
increases.  In  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Milton,  in 
the  same  county,  there  are  over  100  acres  of  them, 
and  new  plantations  are  being  annually  established. 
The  pickers  are  on  the  ground  as  soon  as  the  dew  is 
off,  as  the  berries  do  not  keep  so  well  when  gath- 
ered wet.  I  have  there  seen  fifty  pickers  at  work 
at  the  same  time,  men,  women,  and  children,  some 
of  them  astonishingly  expert,  earning  as  much  as  $2 
in  a  day.  Several  persons  were  constantly  employed 
in  packing  the  neat  little  baskets  into  crates,  the 
baskets  holding  nearly  a  pint.  By  six  o'clock  the 
crates  were  put  on  board  the  steamboat,  and  by  sun- 
rise next  morning  they  were  in  Washington  market. 
As  many  as  80,000  baskets  are  carried  at  a  single 
trip.  The  retail  price  averages  ten  cents  a  basket, 
one  boat  thus  carrying  1800  worth  in  a  single  day. 
All  this  cultivation  being  conducted  in  a  large  way, 
the  yield  per  acre  is  consequently  less  than  from 
small  patches  thoroughly  attended  to.  There  are 
repeated  instances  of  S400  and  even  $600  being 
made  clear  from  a  single  acre  of  raspberries. 

The  culture  in  Ulster  county,  though  at  first  view 
appearing  small,  yet  gives  employment  to,  and  dis- 
tributes its  gains  among  thousands  of  persons.  The 
mere  culture  requires  the  services  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  people.  The  pickers  there,  as  well  as  in  New 
Jersey,  constitute  a  small  army,  there  being  five  or 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  ]  85 

more  required  for  each  acre,  and  the  moneys  thus 
earned  by  these  industrious  people  go  far  towards 
making  entire  families  comfortable  during  some 
months  of  the  year.  The  season  for  raspberries  con- 
tinues about  six  weeks.  Many  of  the  baskets  which 
are  used  about  New  York  are  imported  from  France, 
Frequently  the  supply  is  unequal  to  the  demand. 
If  the  chip  boxes  were  introduced,  as  suggested  in 
the  last  chapter,  the  whole  of  this  outlay  to  foreign 
countries  could  be  stopped.  It  is  strange,  indeed, 
that  any  portion  of  our  people  should  be  compelled 
to  depend  on  France  for  baskets  in  which  to  convey 
their  berries  to  market. 

As  my  raspberries  disappeared,  so  in  regular  suc- 
cession came  the  Lawton  blackberries.  I  had  cut  off 
the  tip  of  every  cane  the  preceding  July.  This,  by 
stopping  the  upward  growth,  drove  the  whole  energy 
of  the  plant  into  the  formation  of  branches.  These 
had  in  turn  been  shortened  to  a  foot  in  length  at  the 
close  of  last  season.  This  process,  by  limiting  the 
quantity  of  fruit  to  be  produced,  increased  the  size 
of  the  berries.  I  am  certain  of  this  fact,  by  long  ex- 
perience with  this  plant.  It  also  prevented  the  ends 
of  the  branches  resting  on  the  ground,  when  all  fruit 
there  produced  would  otherwise  be  ruined  by  being 
covered  with  dust  or  mud.  Besides,  this  was  their 
first  bearing  year,  and  as  they  had  not  had  time  to 
acquire  a  full  supply  of  roots,  it  would  be  unwise  to 
let  them  overbear  themselves.  Some  few  which  had 
grown  to  a  great  height  were  staked  up  with  pickets 
four  and  a  half  feet  long,  and  tied,  the  pickets  cost- 


186  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

ing  $11  per  thousand  at  the  lumber-yard.  But  the 
majority  did  not  need  this  staking  up  the  first 
season ;  but  many  of  the  canes  sent  up  this  year, 
for  bearers  the  next,  it  was  necessary  to  support 
with  stakes. 

The  crop  was  excellent  in  quality,  but  not  large. 
I  began  picking  July  20,  and  thus  had  the  third  use 
of  my  stock  of  boxes.  I  practised  the  same  care  in 
assorting  these  berries  for  market  which  had  been 
observed  with  the  others,  keeping  the  larger  ones 
separate  from  the  smallest  ones.  Thus  a  chest  of 
the  selected  berries,  when  exposed  to  view,  presented 
a  truly  magnificent  sight.  Up  to  this  time  they  had 
never  been  seen  by  fifty  frequenters  of  the  Philadel- 
phia markets.  But  when  this  rare  display  was  first 
opened  in  two  of  the  principal  markets,  it  produced 
a  great  sensation.  None  had  been  picked  until  per- 
fectly ripe,  hence  the  rare  and  melting  flavor  pecul- 
iar to  the  Lawton  prevaded  every  berry.  They  sold 
rapidly  and  netted  me  thirty  cents  a  quart,  the 
smaller  ones  twenty-five  cents.  There  appeared  to 
be  no  limit  to  the  demand  at  these  prices.  Buyers 
cheerfully  gave  them,  though  they  could  get  the 
common  wild  blackberry  in  the  same  market  at  ten 
cents.  Now,  it  cost  me  no  more  to  raise  the  Law- 
tons  than  it  would  have  done  to  raise  the  common 
article.  But  this  is  merely  another  illustration  of 
the  folly  of  raising  the  poorest  fruit  to  sell  at  the 
lowest  prices,  instead  of  the  best  to  sell  at  the 
highest. 

The  crop  of  Lawtons  amounted  to  five  hundred 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  187 

and  ninety-two  quarts,  and  netted  me  $169.84,  an 
average  of  twenty-seven  cents  a  quart.  My  family 
did  not  fail  to  eat  even  more  than  a  usual  allowance. 
As  soon  as  the  picking  was  done,  while  the  plants 
were  yet  covered  with  leaves,  Dick  cut  off  at  the 
ground  all  the  canes  which  had  just  fruited,  using  a 
strong  pair  of  snip-shears,  which  cut  them  through 
without  any  labor.  These  canes  having  done  their 
duty  would  die  in  the  autumn,  oould  now  be  more 
easily  cut  than  when  grown  hard  after  death,  and  if 
removed  at  once,  would  be  out  of  the  way  of  the  new 
canes  of  this  year's  growth. 

The  latter  could  then  be  trimmed  and  staked  up 
for  the  coming  year,  the  removal  of  all  which  super- 
fluous foliage  would  let  in  the  sun  and  air  more 
freely  to  the  cabbages  between  the  rows.  The  old 
wood  being  thus  cut  out,  was  gathered  in  a  heap, 
and  when  dry  enough  was  burned,  the  ashes  being 
collected  and  scattered  around  the  peach-trees. 
After  this  the  limbs  were  all  shortened  in  to  a  foot. 
They  were  very  strong  and  vigorous,  as  in  July  the 
tops  of  the  canes  had  all  been  taken  off,  leaving  no 
cane  more  than  four  feet  high.  The  branches  were 
consequently  very  strong,  giving  promise  of  a  fine 
crop  another  season.  After  this,  such  as  needed  it 
were  staked  up  and  tied,  as  the  autumn  and  winter 
winds  so  blow  and  twist  them  about  that  otherwise 
they  would  be  broken  off.  But  subsequent  prac- 
tice has  induced  me  to  cut  down  to  only  three  feet 
high  ;  and  this  being  done  in  July,  when  the  plant 
is  in  full  growth,  the  cane  becomes  so  stiff  and  stocky 


188  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

before  losing  its  leaves  as  to  require  no  staking,  and 
will  support  itself  under  any  ordinary  storm.  I  have 
seen  growers  of  this  fruit  who  neglected  for  two  or 
three  years,  either  from  laziness  or  carelessness,  to 
remove  the  old  wood ;  but  it  made  terrible  work 
for  the  pickers,  as  in  order  to  get  at  one  year's  fruit 
they  were  compelled  to  contend  with  three  years' 
briers.  Only  a  sloven  will  thus  fail  to  remove  the 
old  wood  annually.  I  prefer  removing  it  in  the 
autumn,  as  soon  as  picking  is  over,  for  reasons  above 
given,  and  also  because  at  that  time  there  is  less  to 
do  than  in  the  spring. 

In  the  meantime  the  fame  of  the  Lawton  black- 
berry had  greatly  extended  and  the  demand  in- 
creased, but  the  propagation  had  also  been  stimu- 
lated. A  class  of  growers  had  omitted  tilling  their 
grounds,  so  as  to  promote  the  growth  of  suckers, 
caring  more  for  the  sale  of  plants  than  for  that  of 
fruit.  Hence  the  quantity  to  meet  the  demand  was 
so  large  as  to  reduce  the  price,  but  I  sold  of  this 
year's  growth  enough  plants  to  produce  me  $218.50. 
Of  this  I  laid  out  $54  in  marl,  which  I  devoted  ex- 
clusively to  the  blackberries.  I  had  been  advised 
by  a  friend  that  marl  was  the  specific  manure  for 
this  plant,  as  of  his  own  knowledge  he  knew  it  to  be 
so.  A  half-peck  was  spread  round  each  hill,  and 
the  remainder  scattered  over  the  ground.  A  single 
row  was  left  unmarled.  It  showed  the  power  of 
this  fertilizer  the  next  season,  as  the  rows  thus 
manured  were  surprisingly  better  filled  with  fruit 
than  that  which  received  none.     Since  that  I  have 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  189 

continued  to  use  this  fertilizer  on  my  blackberries, 
and  can  from  experience  recommend  its  use  to  all 
who  may  cultivate  them. 

With  the  sale  of  pork,  amounting  to  158,  the 
receipts  of  my  second  year  terminated.  My  cash- 
book  showed  the  following  as  the  total  of  receipts 
and  expenditures : 

Paid  for  stable  manure $200.00 

Ashes,  and  Baugh's  rawbone  superphosphate. .  92.00 

Marl 54.00 

Dick's  wages 144.00 

Occasional  help 94.00 

Feed  for  stock 79,30 

Pigs  bought 12.00 

Garden  and  other  seeds 13.00 

Lumber,  nails,  and  sundries 14.50 

Stakes  and  twine 7.00 

$709.80 

The  credit  side  of  the  account  was  much  better 
than  last  year,  and  was  as  follows  : 

From  strawberries,  6  acres $857.60 

"    Lawton  blackberries,  1  acre 159.84 

"    Lawton  plants  213.50 

"    raspberries,  2  acres 38.72 

''    tomatoes,  1  acre 190.00 

"    cabbages 70.20 

♦'    garden 63.00 

"    peaches,  10  trees  in  garden 58.00 

*♦    potatoes 24.00 

"    pork 58.00 

"    calf 2.00 

$1,734.86 


190  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

The  reader  will  not  fail  to  bear  in  mind  that  in 
addition  to  this  cash  receipt  towards  the  support  of 
a  family,  we  had  not  laid  out  a  dollar  for  fruits  or 
vegetables  during  the  entire  year.  Having  all  of 
them  in  unstinted  abundance,  with  a  most  noble 
cow,  the  cash  outlay  for  the  family  was  necessarily 
very  small ;  for  no  one  knows,  until  he  has  all  these 
things  without  paying  for  them  in  money,  how  very 
far  they  go  towards  making  up  the  sum  total  of  the 
cost  of  keeping  a  family  of  ten  persons.  In  addition 
to  this,  we  had  a  full  six  months'  supply  of  pork  on 
hand. 

The  reader  will  also  be  struck  with  the  enormous 
difference  in  favor  of  the  second  year.  But  on  dis- 
secting the  two  accounts  he  will  see  good  reason  for 
this  difference.  In  the  first  place,  some  improve- 
ment was  natural,  as  the  result  of  my  increase  of 
knowledge, — I  was  expected  to  be  all  the  time  grow- 
ing wiser  in  my  new  calling.  In  the  second  place, 
some  expenses  incident  to  the  initiatory  year  were 
lopped  off ;  and  third,  three  of  my  standard  fruits 
had  come  into  bearing.  The  increase  of  receipts 
was  apparently  sudden,  but  it  was  exactly  what  was 
to  be  expected.  I  used  manure  more  freely,  and  on 
my  acre  of  clover  was  particular  to  spread  a  good 
dressing  of  solid  or  liquid  manure  immediately  after 
each  mowing,  so  as  to  thus  restore  to  it  a  full  equiv- 
alent for  the  food  taken  away.  This  dressing  was 
sometimes  ashes,  sometimes  plaster,  or  bone-phos- 
phate, or  liquid,  and  in  the  fall  a  good  topping  from 
the  barnyard.     In  return  for  this,  the  yield  of  clover 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  I91 

was  probably  four  times  what  it  would  have  been 
had  the  lot  been  pastured  and  left  unmanured.  In 
fact,  it  became  evident  to  me  that  the  more  manure 
I  was  able  to  apply  on  any  crop,  the  more  satisfac- 
tory were  my  returns.  Hence,  the  soiling  system 
was  persevered  in,  and  we  had  now  become  so  accus- 
tomed to  it  that  we  considered  it  as  no  extra  trouble. 

The  result  of  this  year's  operations  was  apparently 
conclusive.  My  expenses  for  the  farm  had  been 
$709.80,  while  my  receipts  had  been  11,734.86, 
leaving  a  surplus  of  $1,025.06  for  the  support  of 
my  famity.  But  more  than  half  of  their  support 
had  been  drawn  from  the  products  of  the  farm ;  and, 
at  the  year's  end,  when  every  account  had  been 
settled  up,  and  every  bill  at  the  stores  paid  off,  I 
found  that  of  this  $1,025.06  I  had  $567  in  cash  on 
hand, — proving  that  it  had  required  only  $458.06  in 
money,  in  addition  to  what  we  consumed  from  the 
farm,  to  keep  us  all  with  far  more  comfort  than  we 
had  ever  known  in  the  city.  Thus,  after  setting 
aside  $356.06  for  the  purchase  of  manure,  there  was 
a  clear  surplus  of  $200  for  investment. 

I  had  never  done  better  than  this  in  the  city. 
There,  the  year's  end  never  found  me  with  accounts 
squared  up,  and  a  clear  cash  balance  on  hand.  Few 
occupations  can  be  carried  on  in  the  city  after  so 
snug  a  fashion.  Credit  is  there  the  rule,  and  cash 
the  exception, — at  least  it  was  ten  years  ago.  But 
in  the  apparently  humbler  trade  of  trucking  and 
fruit-growing  everything  is  cash.  Manure,  the 
great  staple  article  to  be  bought,  can  be  had  on 


192  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

credit;  but  all  you  grow  from  it  is  cash.  Food 
must  be  paid  for  on  delivery,  and  he  who  produces 
it  will  have  no  bad  debts  at  the  year's  end  but  such 
as  may  exist  from  his  own  carelessness  or  neglect. 
Thus,  what  a  farmer  earns  he  gets.  He  loses  none 
of  his  gains,  if  he  attends  to  his  business.  They 
may  be  smaller,  on  paper,  than  those  realized  by 
dashing  operators  in  the  city,  but  they  are  infinitely 
more  tangible ;  and  if,  as  in  my  case,  they  should 
prove  to  be  enough,  what  matters  it  as  to  the 
amount  ?  The  producers  of  food,  therefore,  possess 
this  preponderating  advantage  over  all  other  classes 
of  business  men :  they  go  into  a  market  where  cash 
without  limit  is  always  ready  to  be  paid  down  for 
whatever  they  bring  to  it.  A  business  which  is 
notoriously  profitable,  thus  kept  up  at  the  cash  level, 
and  consequently  free  from  the  hazard  of  bad  debts, 
cannot  fail  to  enrich  those  who  pursue  it  exten- 
sively, and  with  proper  intelligence  and  industry.  I 
could  name  various  men  who,  beginning  on  less  than 
a  hundred  dollars,  and  on  rented  land,  have  in  a  few 
years  become  its  owners,  and  in  the  end  arrived  at 
great  wealth,  solely  from  the  business  of  raising 
fruit  and  truck. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  193 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

LIQUID    MANURES — AN    ILLUSTRATION. 

No  sooner  had  the  autumn  of  my  second  year 
fairly  set  in,  and  the  leaves  fallen,  than  I  turned  my 
attention  more  closely  than  ever  to  the  subject  of 
providing  an  abundant  supply  of  manure,  in  hopes 
of  being  able  to  devise  some  plan  by  which  to  lessen 
the  large  cash  outlay  necessary  to  be  annually  made 
for  it.  I  did  not  grudge  tlje  money  for  manure,  any 
more  than  the  sugar  on  my  strawberries.  Both 
were  absolutely  necessary ;  but  economy  in  provid- 
ing manure  was  as  legitimate  a  method  of  increas- 
ing my  profits  as  that  of  purchasing  it.  I  knew  it 
must  be  had  in  abundance :  the  point  was,  to  in- 
crease the  quantity  while  diminishing  the  outlay. 
Thus  resolved,  I  kept  Dick  more  actively  at  work 
than  ever  in  gathering  leaves  all  over  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  when  he  had  cleaned  up  the  public  roads, 
I  then  sent  him  into  every  piece  of  woods  to  which 
the  owner  would  grant  me  access.  In  these  he 
gathered  the  mould  and  half-rotted  leaves  which 
thickly  covered  the  ground.  I  knew  that  he  would 
thus  bring  home  a  quantity  of  pestiferous  seeds,  to 
plague  us  in  the  shape  of  weeds,  but  by  this  time 
we  had  learned  to  have  no  fear  of  them.  By  steadily 
pursuing  this  plan  when  no  snow  lay  on  the  ground, 
13 


I9i  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

he  piled  up  in  the  barnyard  a  most  astonishing 
quantity  of  leaves.  There  happened  to  be  but  little 
competition  in  the  search  for  them,  so  that  he  had 
the  ground  clear  for  himself.  All  this  addition  to 
the  manure  heap  cost  me  nothing.  To  this  I  added 
many  hogsheads  of  bones,  which  the  small  boys 
of  the  neighborhood  gathered  up  from  pig-pens, 
slaughter-houses,  and  other  places,  and  considered 
themselves  well  paid  at  ten  cents  a  bushel  for  their 
labor.  These  were  laid  aside  until  the  best  and 
cheapest  method  could  be  devised  for  reducing  them 
to  powder,  and  so  fitting  them  for  use. 

In  the  meantime,  I  frequently  walked  for  miles 
away  into  the  country,  making  acquaintance  with 
the  farmers,  observing  their  different  modes  of  cul- 
tivation, what  crops  they  produced,  and  especially 
their  methods  of  obtaining  manures.  As  before 
observed,  farmers  have  no  secrets.  Hence  many 
valuable  hints  were  obtained  and  treasured  up, 
from  which  I  have  subsequently  derived  the  great- 
est advantage.  Some  of  these  farmers  were  living 
on  land  which  they  had  skinned  into  the  most 
squalid  poverty,  and  were  on  the  high-road  to  being 
turned  off  by  the  sheriff.  Others  were  manured  at 
a  money  cost  which  astonished  me,  exceeding  any 
outlay  that  I  had  made,  but  confirming  to  the  letter 
all  my  preconceived  opinions  on  the  subject,  that 
one  acre  thoroughly  manured  is  worth  ten  that  are 
starved.  Of  one  farmer  I  learned  particulars  as  to 
the  history  of  his  neighbor,  which  I  felt  a  delicacy 
in  asking  of  the  latter  himself.     Some  instances  of 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  195 

success  from  the  humblest  beginnings  were  truly- 
remarkable  ;  but  in  all  these  I  found  that  faith  in 
manure  lay  at  the  bottom. 

One  case  is  too  striking  to  be  omitted.  A  Ger- 
man, with  his  wife,  and  two  children  just  large 
enough  to  pull  weeds  and  drive  a  cow,  had  settled, 
seven  years  before,  on  eight  acres,  from  which  the 
owner  had  been  driven  by  running  deeply  in  debt 
at  the  grog-shop.  The  drunkard's  acres  had  of 
course  become  starved  and  desolate ;  the  fences 
were  half  down,  there  was  no  garden,  and  the  hovel, 
in  which  his  unhappy  family  was  once  snugly 
housed,  appeared  ready  to  take  its  departure  on  the 
wings  of  the  wind.  Every  fruit-tree  had  died.  In 
this  squalid  condition  the  newly  arrived  German 
took  possession,  with  the  privilege  of  purchasing  for 
$600.  His  whole  capital  was  three  dollars.  He 
began  with  four  pigs,  which  he  paid  for  in  work. 
The  manure  from  these  was  daily  emptied  into  an 
empty  butter-firkin,  which  also  served  as  a  family 
water-closet,  and  the  whole  was  converted  into 
liquid  manure,  which  was  supplied  to  cabbages  and 
onions.  A  gentleman  who  lived  near,  and  who 
noted  the  progress  of  this  industrious  man,  assured 
me  that  even  in  the  exhausted  soil  where  the  crops 
were  planted,  the  growth  was  almost  incredible. 
On  turnips  and  rutabagas  the  effect  was  equally 
great.  Long  before  winter  set  in,  this  hero  had 
bought  a  cow,  for  while  his  own  crops  were  grow- 
ing he  had  earned  money  by  working  around  the 
neighborhood.      He  readily  obtained  credit  at  the 


196  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

store,  for  he  was  soon  discovered  to  be  deserving. 
When  away  at  work,  his  wife  plied  the  hoe,  and 
acted  as  mistress  of  the  aforesaid  butter-tub,  while 
the  children  pulled  weeds.  His  cabbages  and  roots 
exceeded  any  in  the  township ;  they  discharged  his 
little  store-bills,  and  kept  his  cow  during  the  win- 
ter, while  the  living  cow  and  the  dead  pigs  kept  the 
entire  family,  for  they  lived  about  as  close  to  the 
wind  as  possible. 

This  man's  passion  was  for  liquid  manure.  If  he 
had  done  so  much  with  a  tub,  he  was  of  course 
comparatively  rich  with  a  cow.  Then  he  sunk  a 
hogshead  in  the  ground,  conducted  the  wash  of  the 
kitchen  into  it,  and  there  also  emptied  the  droppings 
from  the  cow.  It  was  water-closet  for  her  as  well 
as  for  the  family.  It  is  true  that  few  of  us  would 
fancy  such  a  smelling-bottle  at  the  kitchen  door ; 
but  it  never  became  a  nuisance,  for  he  kept  it  in- 
noxious by  frequent  applications  of  plaster,  which 
improved  as  well  as  purified  the  whole  contents. 
It  was  laborious  to  transport  the  fluid  to  his  crops, 
but  a  wheelbarrow  came  the  second  year  to  lessen 
the  labor.  There  happened,  by  the  merest  accident, 
to  be  a  quarter  of  an  acre  of  raspberries  surviving 
on  the  place.  He  dug  all  round  these  to  the  depth  of 
eighteen  inches,  trimmed  them  up,  kept  out  the 
weeds,  and  gave  them  enormous  quantities  of  liquid 
manure.  The  yield  was  most  extraordinary,  for  the 
second  year  of  his  location  there  he  sold  $84  worth 
of  fruit.  This  encouraged  him  to  plant  more,  until 
at  the  end  of  four  years  he  had  made  enough,  from 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  197 

his  raspberries  alone,  not  only  to  pay  for  his  eight 
acres,  but  to  accumulate  a  multitude  of  comforts 
around  him.  In  all  this  application  of  liquid 
manure  his  wife  had  aided  him  with  unflagging 
industry. 

It  was  natural  for  me  to  feel  great  interest  in  a 
case  like  this,  so  I  called  repeatedly  to  see  the 
grounds  and  converse  with  the  German  owner.  As 
it  was  seven  years  from  his  beginning  when  I  first 
became  acquainted  with  him,  his  little  farm  bore 
no  resemblance  to  its  condition  when  he  took 
possession.  There  were  signs  of  thrift  all  over  it. 
His  fences  were  new,  and  clear  of  hedgerows ;  his 
house  had  been  completely  renovated ;  he  had  built 
a  large  barn  and  cattle-sheds,  while  his  garden  was 
immeasurably  better  than  mine.  Everything  was 
in  a  condition  exceeding  all  that  I  had  seen  else- 
where. His  two  girls  had  grown  up  into  handsome 
young  women,  and  had  been  for  years  at  school. 
All  this  time  he  had  continued  to  enlarge  his  means 
of  manufacturing  and  applying  liquid  manure,  as 
upon  its  use  he  placed  his  main  dependence.  He 
had  sunk  a  large  brick  cistern  in  the  barnyard,  into 
which  all  the  liquor  from  six  cows  and  two  horses 
was  conducted,  as  well  as  the  wash  from  the  pig- 
pen and  the  barnyard.  A  fine  pump  in  the  cistern 
enabled  him  to  keep  his  manure  heap  constantly 
saturated,  the  heap  being  always  under  cover,  and 
to  fill  a  hogshead  mounted  on  wheels,  from  which  he 
discharged  the  contents  over  his  ground.  The  tub 
and   underground  hogshead  with  which  he  com- 


198  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

menced  were  of  course  obsolete.  If  it  be  possible 
to  build  a  monument  out  of  liquid  manure,  here 
was  one  on  this  farm  of  eight  acres.  Its  owner  de- 
veloped another  peculiarity — he  had  no  desire  to 
buy  more  land. 

This  man's  great  success  in  a  small  way  could  not 
have  been  achieved  without  the  most  assiduous  hus- 
banding of  manure,  and  this  husbanding  was  accom- 
plished by  soiling  his  cow.  As  he  increased  his 
herd  he  continued  the  soiling  system ;  but  as  it 
required  more  help,  so  he  abandoned  working  for 
others  and  hired  whatever  help  was  necessary. 
The  increase  of  his  manure  heap  was  so  great  that 
his  little  farm  was  soon  brought  into  the  highest 
possible  condition.  In  favorable  seasons  he  could 
grow  huge  crops  of  whatever  he  planted.  But  his 
progress  was  no  greater  than  has  repeatedly  been 
made  by  others,  who  thoroughly  prosecute  the  soil- 
ing system. 

A  frequent  study  of  this  remarkable  instance  of 
successful  industry,  led  me  to  conclude  that  high 
farming  must  consist  in  the  abundant  use  of  manure 
in  a  liquid  state.  A  fresh  reading  of  forgotten 
pages  shed  abundance  of  new  light  upon  the  sub- 
ject. The  fluid  excretia  of  every  animal  is  worth 
more  than  the  solid  portion ;  but  some  are  not  con- 
tented with  losing  the  fluid  portions  voided  by  the 
animals  themselves,  but  they  suffer  the  solid 
portions  of  their  manure  to  undergo  destructive 
fermentation  in  their  barnyards,  and  thus  to  become 
soluble,  and  part,  by  washing,  with  the  more  valu- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  199 

able  portions.  Now  it  is  well  known  that  the  inor- 
ganic matter  in  barnyard  manure  is  always  of  a 
superior  character,  therefore  valuable  as  well  as 
soluble  ;  and  this  is  regularly  parted  with  from  the 
soil  by  those  who  permit  the  washings  to  be  wasted 
by  running  off  to  other  fields  or  to  the  roadside. 
I  have  seen  whole  townships  where  every  barnyard 
on  the  roadside  may  be  found  discharging  a  broad 
stream  of  this  life-blood  of  the  farm  into  the  public 
highway.  The  manure  heap  must  be  liquefied 
before  the  roots  of  plants  can  be  benefited  by  the 
food  it  contains.  No  portion  of  a  straw  decomposed 
in  the  soil  can  feed  a  new  plant  until  it  is  capable  of 
being  dissolved  in  water ;  and  this  solution  cannot 
occur  without  chemical  changes,  whose  conditions 
are  supplied  by  the  surroundings.  Such  changes 
can  be  made  to  occur  in  the  barnyard  by  saturating 
the  compost  heap  with  barnyard  liquor.  All  that 
nature's  laws  would  in  ten  years  effect  in  manures 
in  an  ordinary  state,  when  ploughed  into  the  ground, 
are  ready,  and  occur  in  a  single  season,  when  the 
manures  are  presented  to  the  roots  of  plants  in  a 
liquid  form. 

A  suggestion  appropriate  to  this  matter  may  be 
made  for  the  consideration  of  ingenious  minds. 
Every  farmer  knows  that  a  manure  heap,  when  first 
composted,  abounds  in  clods  of  matted  ingredients 
so  compact,  that  time  alone  will  thoroughly  reduce 
them  to  that  state  of  pulverization  in  which  manure 
becomes  an  available  stimulant  to  the  roots  of  plants. 
Fermentation,  the  result  of  composting  or  turning 


200  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

over  a  manure  heap,  does  measurably  destroy  their 
cohesion,  but  not  sufiBciently.  Few  can  afford  to  let 
their  compost  heaps  remain  long  enough  for  the  pro- 
cess of  pulverization  to  become  as  perfect  as  it 
should  be.  Hence  it  is  taken  to  the  field  still  com- 
posed of  hard  clods,  around  which  the  roots  may 
instinctively  cluster,  but  into  which  they  vainly 
seek  to  penetrate.  Some  careful  farmers  endeavor 
to  remedy  this  defect  by  laboriously  spading  down 
the  heap  as  it  is  carted  away.  The  operation  is  a 
slow  one,  and  does  not  half  prepare  the  manure  for 
distribution.  A  year  or  two  is  thus  required  for 
these  clods  to  become  properly  pulverized,  for  they 
remain  in  the  soil  inert  and  useless  until  subse- 
quent ploughings  and  harrowing  reduce  them  to 
powder. 

As  farmers  cannot  wait  for  time  to  perform  this 
office  in  the  manure  heap,  they  should  have  machin- 
ery to  do  the  work,  A  wooden  cylinder,  armed 
with  long  iron  teeth,  and  revolving  rapidly  in  a 
horizontal  position,  with  the  manure  fed  in  at  the 
top  through  a  capacious  hopper,  would  tear  up  the 
clods  into  tatters,  and  deliver  the  whole  in  the  ex- 
act condition  of  fine  powder,  which  the  roots  of  all 
plants  require.  To  do  this  would  require  less  time 
and  labor  than  the  present  custom  of  cutting  down 
with  either  spade  or  drag.  Better  still,  if  the  man- 
ure could  be  so  broken  up  as  it  is  taken  from  the 
barnyard  to  the  compost  heap ;  the  process  of  dis- 
integration thus  begun  would  go  on  through  the 
entire  mass,  until,  when  carted  away,  it  would  be 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  201 

found  almost  as  friable  as  an  ash  heap.  It  is  by 
contact  of  the  countless  mouths  of  the  roots  with 
minute  particles  of  manure  that  they  suck  up  nutri- 
ment, not  by  contact  with  a  dense  clod.  Hence  the 
astonishing  and  immediate  efficacy  of  liquid  manure. 
In  that  the  nutriment  has  been  reduced  to  its  utmost 
condition  of  divisibility,  and  when  the  liquid  is  ap- 
plied to  the  soil,  saturation  reaches  the  entire  root, 
embracing  its  marvellous  network  of  minute  fibres, 
and  affording  to  each  the  food  which  it  may  be  seek- 
ing. 

We  cannot  use  liquid  manures  on  a  large  scale, 
but  thorough  pulverization  of  that  which  is  solid  is 
a  very  near  approach  to  the  former.  Immerse  a 
compact  clod  in  water,  and  the  latter  will  require 
time  to  become  discolored.  But  plunge  an  equal 
bulk  of  finely  pulverized  manure  into  water,  and 
discoloration  almost  instantly  occurs.  Diffusion  is 
inevitable  from  contact  with  the  water.  Now  as 
rain  is  water,  so  a  heavy  shower  falling  on  ground 
beneath  which  great  clods  of  manure  have  been 
buried,  produces  in  them  no  more  liquefaction  than 
it  does  on  that  which  has  been  dropped  in  a  bucket. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  the  ground  be  charged  with 
finely  pulverized  manure,  a  soaking  rain  will  im- 
mediately penetrate  all  its  comminuted  particles, 
extract  the  nutriment,  and  deliver  it,  properly  diluted, 
into  the  open  mouths  of  the  millions  of  little  root- 
lets which  are  waiting  for  it.  Practically,  this  is 
liquid  manure  on  the  grandest  scale.  But  no  one 
can  quickly  realize  its  superior  benefits  from  a  newly 


202  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

buried  compost  heap,  unless  the  latter  has  been 
effectually  pulverized  before  being  deposited  either 
in  or  upon  the  ground. 

I  was  so  impressed  by  the  example  of  the  thriv- 
ing German  referred  to,  that  I  resolved  to  imitate 
him.  He  had  given  me  a  rich  lesson  in  the  art  of 
manufacturing  manures  cheaply,  though  I  thought 
it  did  not  go  far  enough.  Yet  I  made  an  immedi- 
ate beginning  by  building  a  tank  in  the  barnyard, 
into  which  the  wash  from  stable,  pig-pen,  and  yard 
was  conducted.  This  was  pumped  up  and  dis- 
tributed over  the  top  of  the  manure  heap  under  the 
shed,  once  or  twice  weekly.  A  huge  compost  heap 
was  made  of  leaves,  each  layer  being  saturated  with 
the  liquor  as  the  heap  accumulated,  so  that  the  whole 
mass  was  moist  with  fluid  manure.  It  was  never 
suffered  to  become  dry.  Now,  as  in  the  centre  of  a 
manure  heap  there  is  no  winter,  decomposition  went 
on  at  a  rapid  rate,  especially  among  the  leaves, 
stimulated  by  the  peculiar  solvents  contained  in  the 
liquor.  Thus,  when  taken  out  for  use  in  the  spring, 
both  heaps  had  become  reduced  to  a  half  fluid  mass 
of  highly  concentrated  manure,  in  a  condition  to  be 
converted,  under  the  first  heavy  rain,  into  immediate 
food  for  plants.  Though  my  money- cost  for  manure 
for  next  season  would  be  greater  than  before,  yet 
my  home  manufacture  was  immense.  As  I  was 
sure  that  high  manuring  was  the  key  to  heavy  crops 
and  high  profits,  so  my  studies,  this  winter,  were  as 
diligently  pursued  in  the  barnyard  as  in  the  library, 
and  I  flattered  myself  that  I  had  gathered  hints 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  203 

enough  among  my  neighbors  to  enable  me,  after  next 
year,  to  dispense  entirely  with  the  purchasing  of 
manure. 

But  I  had  other  reasons  for  avoiding  the  purchase 
of  manure — none  can  be  purchased  clear  of  seeds, 
such  as  grass  and  weeds.  I  have  already  suffered 
severely  from  the  foul  trash  that  has  been  sold  to 
me.  One  strong  warning  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
nuisance  was  given  by  the  condition  of  my  straw- 
berries. A  small  portion  of  them  was  covered,  at 
the  approach  of  winter,  with  litter  from  the  barn- 
yard, and  another  portion  with  cornstalks.  The 
object  was  protection  from  the  cold  ;  and  it  may  be 
added  that  the  result,  so  far  as  protection  goes,  was 
very  gratifying.  But  when  the  covering  was  re- 
moved in  April,  the  ground  protected  by  the  barn- 
yard litter  was  found  to  be  seeded  with  grass  and 
other  seeds,  while  that  protected  by  the  cornstalks 
was  entirely  clean.  During  a  whole  year  I  had  the 
utmost  difficulty  to  get  the  first  piece  of  ground 
clear  of  these  newly  planted  pests,  and  am  sure  that 
the  labor  thus  exerted  cost  more  than  the  straw- 
berries were  worth.  From  this  sore  experience  I 
have  learned  never  to  cover  this  fruit  with  barn- 
yard litter.  When  they  are  covered,  cornstalks 
alone  are  used.  They  are  drawn  back  into  the 
balks  in  April,  where  they  serve  as  a  mulch  to  keep 
down  the  weeds,  and  ultimately  decay  into  manure. 
Though  not  so  neat  to  look  at,  nor  so  convenient  to 
handle  as  straw,  yet  they  answer  quite  as  well,  and 
at  the  same  time  cost  a  great  deal  less. 


204  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

MY     THIRD      YEAR — LIQUID    MANURE- 
RESULTS. 

As  usual  with  me  at  the  opening  of  spring,  the 
garden  received  our  first  attention.  Dick  covered  it 
heavily  with  manure,  cleared  it  up  and  made  all 
ready  for  wife  and  daughter.  This  year  we  had  no 
seeds  to  purchase,  having  carefully  laid  them  aside 
from  the  last.  In  order  to  try  for  myself  the  value 
of  liquid  manuring,  I  mounted  a  barrel  on  a  wheel- 
barrow, so  that  it  could  be  turned  in  any  direction, 
and  the  liquor  be  discharged  through  a  sprinkler  with 
the  greatest  convenience.  Dick  attended  faithfully 
to  this  department.  As  early  as  January  he  had 
begun  to  sprinkle  the  asparagus ;  indeed  he  deluged 
it,  putting  on  not  less  than  twenty  barrels  of  liquor 
before  it  was  forked  up.  It  had  received  its  full 
share  of  rich  manure  in  the  autumn  :  the  result  of 
both  applications  being  a  more  luxuriant  growth  of 
this  delightful  vegetable  than  perhaps  even  the  Phila- 
delphia market  had  ever  exhibited.  The  shoots 
came  up  more  numerously  than  before,  were  whiter, 
thicker,  and  tenderer,  and  commanded  five  cents  a 
bunch  more  than  any  other.  As  the  bed  was  a  large 
one,  and  the  yield  great,  we  sold  to  the  amount  of 
$21.    I  certainly  never  tasted  so  luscious  and  tender 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  206 

an  article.  Its  superiority  was  justly  traceable,  to 
some  extent,  to  the  liquid  manure. 

Tke  same  stimulant  was  freely  administered  all 
over  the  garden,  and  with  marked  results.  It  was 
never  used  in  dry  weather,  nor  when  a  hot  sun  was 
shining.  We  contrived  to  get  it  on  at  the  beginning 
of  a  rain,  or  during  drizzly  weather,  so  that  it  should 
be  immediately  diluted  and  then  carried  down  to  the 
roots.  I  have  no  doubt  it  promoted  the  growth  of 
weeds,  as  there  was  certainly  more  of  them  to  kill 
this  season  than  ever  before.  But  we  had  all  become 
reconciled  to  the  sight  of  weeds — expected  them  as 
a  matter  of  course — and  my  wife  and  Kate  became 
thorough  converts  to  Dick's  heresy  as  to  the  impos- 
sibility of  ever  getting  rid  of  them.  I  was  pained 
to  hear  of  this  declension  from  what  I  regarded  as 
the  only  true  faith;  but  when  I  saw  the  terrible 
armies  which  came  up  in  the  garden  just  as  regularly 
as  Dick  distributed  his  liquor,  I  confess  they  had 
abundant  reason  for  the  faith  that  was  in  them. 

But  the  barnyard  fluid  was  a  good  thing,  not- 
withstanding. It  brought  the  early  beets  into  mar- 
ket ten  days  ahead  of  all  competitors,  thus  securing 
the  best  prices.  It  was  the  same  with  radishes  and 
salad.  The  latter  is  scarcely  ever  to  be  had  in  small 
country  towns,  and  then  only  at  high  rates.  But 
whether  it  was  owing  to  the  liquor  or  not,  I  will  not 
say,  but  it  came  early  into  market  in  the  best  pos- 
sible condition ;  and  as  there  happened  to  be  plenty 
of  it,  we  sold  to  the  amount  of  119  of  the  very  early, 
and  then,  as  prices  lowered,  continued  to  send  it  to 


206  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

the  store  as  long  as  it  commanded  two  cents  a  head, 
after  which  the  cow  and  pigs  became  exckisive  cus- 
tomers. The  fall  vegetables,  such  as  white  onions, 
carrots  and  parsnips,  having  had  more  of  the  liquor, 
did  even  better,  for  they  grew  to  very  large  size.  It 
was  the  same  thing  with  currants  and  gooseberries. 
The  whole  together  produced  $83 ;  to  which  must  be 
added  the  ten  peach-trees,  all  which  I  had  thinned 
out  when  the  fruit  was  the  size  of  hickory  nuts,  and 
with  the  same  success  as  the  previous  year.  This 
was  in  1857,  that  time  of  panic,  suspension,  and  in- 
solvency. That  year  had  been  noted,  even  from  its 
opening,  as  one  of  great  scarcity  of  money  in  the 
cities,  when  all  unlucky  enough  to  need  it  were  com- 
pelled to  pay  the  highest  rates  for  its  use.  But  we 
in  the  country,  being  out  of  the  ring,  gave  way  to 
no  panic,  felt  no  scarcity,  experienced  no  insolvency. 
Peaches  brought  as  high  a  price  as  ever;  as,  let 
times  in  the  city  be  black  as  they  may,  there  is  al- 
ways money  enough  in  somebody's  hands  to  ex- 
change for  all  the  choice  fruit  that  goes  to  market. 
The  fruit  from  the  ten  trees  produced  me  169, 
making  the  whole  product  of  the  garden  $152.  I 
thought  this  was  not  doing  well  enough,  and  re- 
solved to  do  better  another  year. 

At  the  usual  season  for  the  weeds  to  show  them- 
selves on  the  nine  acres,  it  very  soon  became  evident 
that  two  years'  warfare  had  resulted  in  a  compara- 
tive conquest.  It  may  be  safely  said  that  there  was 
not  half  the  usual  number,  and  so  it  continued 
throughout  the  season.     But  no  exertion  was  spared 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  207 

to  keep  them  under,  none  being  allowed  to  go  to 
seed.  This  watchfulness  being  continued  from  that 
day  to  this,  the  mastery  has  been  complete.  We 
still  have  weeds,  but  are  no  longer  troubled  with 
them  as  at  the  beginning.  The  secret  lies  in  a  nut- 
shell— let  none  go  to  seed.  Nor  let  any  cultivator  be 
discouraged,  no  matter  how  formidable  the  host  he 
may  have  to  attack  at  the  beginning.  But  if  he  will 
procure  the  proper  labor-saving  tools,  and  drive  them 
with  a  determined  perseverance,  success  is  sure. 

As  usual,  the  strawberries  came  first  into  market, 
and  were  prepared  and  sent  off  with  even  more  care 
than  formerly.  The  money  pressure  in  the  cities 
caused  no  reduction  in  price,  and  my  net  receipts 
were  $903.  An  experienced  grower  near  me,  with 
only  four  acres,  cleared  $1,200  the  same  season. 
His  crop  was  much  heavier  than  mine.  If  he  had 
practised  the  same  care  in  assorting  his  fruit  for 
market,  he  would  have  realized  several  hundred  dol- 
lars more.  But  his  effort  was  for  quantity,  not  quality. 

A  portion  of  the  raspberries  had  been  thoroughly 
watered  with  the  liquid  manure,  all  through  the 
colder  spring  months.  It  was  too  great  a  labor,  with 
a  single  wheelbarrow,  to  supply  the  whole  two  acres, 
or  it  would  have  been  similarly  treated.  But  the 
portion  thus  supplied  was  certainly  three  times  as 
productive  as  the  portion  not  supplied.  My  whole 
net  receipts  from  raspberries  amounted  to  $267. 
The  plants  were  now  well  rooted,  and  were  in  prime 
bearing  condition.  Since  this,  I  have  quadrupled 
my  facilities   for  applying  the  liquid  manure.    A 


208  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

large  hogshead  has  been  mounted  on  low  wheels,  the 
rims  of  which  are  four  inches  wide,  so  as  to  prevent 
them  sinking  into  the  ground,  the  whole  being  con- 
structed to  weigh  as  little  as  possible.  The  sprink- 
ling apparatus  will  drench  one  or  two  rows  at  a  time, 
as  may  be  desired.  The  driver  rides  on  the  cart, 
and  by  raising  or  lowering  a  valve,  lets  on  or  shuts 
off  the  flow  of  liquor  at  his  pleasure.  Having  been 
used  on  the  raspberries  for  several  years,  I  can  testify 
to  the  extraordinary  value  of  this  mode  of  applying 
manure.  It  stimulates  an  astonishing  growth  of 
canes,  increases  the  quantity  of  fruit,  while  it  secures 
the  grand  desideratum,  a  prodigious  enlargement  in 
the  size  of  the  berries.  I  find  by  inquiry  among  my 
neighbors  that  none  of  them  get  so  high  prices  as 
myself.  Every  crop  has  been  growing  more  profitable 
than  the  preceding  one ;  and  it  may  be  set  down  that 
an  acre  of  raspberries,  treated  and  attended  to  as  they 
ought  to  be,  will  realize  a  net  profit  of  $200  annually. 
The  Lawtons  were  this  year  to  come  into  stronger 
bearing.  Parties  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
had  agreed  to  take  all  my  crop,  and  guarantee  me 
twenty-five  cents  a  quart.  One  speculator  came  to 
my  house  and  offered  $200  for  the  crop,  before  the 
berries  were  ripe.  I  should  have  accepted  the  offer, 
thinking  that  was  money  enough  to  make  from  one 
acre,  had  not  my  obligation  to  send  the  fruit  to  other 
parties  interfered  with  a  sale.  But  I  made  out  a 
trifle  better,  as  the  quantity  marketed  amounted  to 
896  quarts,  which  netted  me  $206.08.  In  addition 
to  this,  the  sales  of  plants  amounted  to  $101.     As  the 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  209 

market  price  for  plants  was  falling,  I  was  not  anx- 
ious to  multiply  them  to  the  injury  of  the  fruit ; 
hence  many  suckers  were  cut  down  outside  of  the 
rows,  so  as  to  throw  the  whole  energy  of  the  roots 
into  the  berries ;  and  I  think  the  result  justified  this 
course.  The  demand  for  the  fruit  was  so  great,  that 
I  could  have  readily  sold  four  times  as  much  at  the 
same  price.  As  the  season  for  the  blackberries 
closed,  all  the  stray  fruit  was  gathered  and  converted 
into  an  admirable  wine.  Some  seventy  bottles  were 
made  for  home  use ;  and  when  a  year  old,  I  dis- 
covered that  it  was  of  ready  sale  at  half  a  dollar  per 
bottle.  Since  then  we  have  made  a  barrel  of  wine 
annually  ;  and  when  old  enough,  all  not  needed  for 
domestic  purposes  is  sold  at  $2  per  gallon.  It  is  a 
small  item  of  our  general  income,  but  quite  suffi- 
cient to  show  that  vast  profit  may  be  made  by  any 
person  going  largely  into  the  business  of  manufac- 
turing blackberry- wine. 

We  raised  nothing  of  value  among  the  black- 
berries this  year.  The  growth  of  new  wood  had 
been  so  luxuriant,  that  the  ground  between  the  rows 
was  too  much  shaded  to  permit  other  plants  to 
mature.  In  some  places,  the  huge  canes,  throwing 
out  branches  six  to  seven  feet  long,  had  interlocked 
with  each  other  from  row  to  row,  and  were  cut 
away,  to  enable  the  cultivator  and  weeder  to  pass 
along  between  them,  and  thenceforward  this  acre 
was  given  up  entirely  to  the  blackberries.  As  the 
roots  wandered  away  for  twenty  or  thirty  feet  in 
search  of  nourishment,  they  acquired  new  power  to 
14 


210  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

force  up  stronger  and  more  numerous  canes.  Many 
of  these  came  up  profusely  in  a  direct  line  with  the 
original  plants.  When  not  standing  too  close  to- 
gether, they  were  carefully  preserved,  when  of  vig- 
orous growth ;  but  the  feeble  ones  were  taken  up 
and  sold.  Thus,  in  a  few  years,  a  row  which  had 
been  originally  set  with  plants  eight  feet  apart 
became  a  compact  hedge,  and  an  acre  supporting 
full  six  times  as  many  bearing  canes  as  when  first 
planted.  Hence  the  crop  of  fruit  should  increase 
annually.  It  will  continue  to  do  so,  if  not  more 
than  three  vigorous  canes  are  allowed  to  grow  in 
one  cluster ;  if  the  canes  are  cut  down  in  July  to 
three  or  four  feet  high ;  if  the  branches  are  cut  back 
to  a  foot  in  length;  if  the  growth  of  all  suckers  be- 
tween the  rows  is  thoroughly  stopped  by  treating 
them  the  same  as  weeds ;  if  the  old-bearing  wood  is 
nicely  taken  out  at  the  close  of  every  season ;  and, 
finally,  if  the  plants  are  bountifully  supplied  with 
manure.  From  long  experience  with  this  admirable 
fruit,  I  lay  it  down  as  a  rule  that  every  single  con- 
dition above  stated  must  be  complied  with,  if  the 
grower  expects  abundant  crops  of  the  very  finest 
fruit.  Observe  them,  and  the  result  is  certain; 
neglect  them,  and  the  reward  will  be  inferior  fruit, 
to  sell  at  inferior  prices. 

To  the  Lawtons  succeeded  the  peaches,  now  their 
first  bearing  year.  We  had  protected  them  for  three 
seasons  from  the  fly  by  keeping  the  butts  well  tarred, 
and  they  were  now  about  to  give  some  return  for 
this  careful  but  unexpensive  oversight.     Some  few  of 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  211 

them  produced  no  fruit  whatever,  but  the  majority 
made  a  respectable  show.  I  went  over  the  orchard 
myself,  examining  each  tree  with  the  utmost  care, 
and  removed  every  peach  of  inferior  size,  as  well  as 
thinning  out  even  good  ones  which  happened  to  be 
too  much  crowded  together.  Being  of  the  earlier 
sorts,  they  came  into  market  in  advance  of  a  glut ; 
and  though  the  money-pressure  in  the  cities  was 
now  about  culminating  in  the  memorable  explosion 
of  September,  yet  there  was  still  money  enough  left 
in  the  pockets  of  the  multitude  to  pay  good  prices 
for  peaches.  It  is  with  fruit  as  it  is  with  rum — men 
are  never  too  poor  to  buy  both.  My  804  trees  pro- 
duced me  $208  clear  of  expenses,  with  a  pretty  sure 
prospect  of  doing  much  better  hereafter.  I  had 
learned  from  experience  that  a  shrewd  grower  need 
not  be  apprehensive  of  a  glut ;  and  that  if  panics 
palsied,  or  a  general  insolvency  desolated  the  cities, 
they  still  contrived  to  hold  as  much  money  as  before. 
Credit  might  disappear,  but  the  money  remained ; 
and  the  industrious  tiller  of  the  soil  was  sure  to  get 
his  full  share  of  the  general  fund  which  survives 
even  the  worst  convulsion. 

My  acre  of  tomatoes  netted  me  this  year  1192,  my 
pork  $61,  my  potatoes  $40,  and  the  calf  $3.  Thus, 
as  my  grounds  became  charged  with  manure, — as  I 
restored  to  it  the  waste  occasioned  by  the  crops  that 
were  removed  from  it,  and  even  more  than  that 
waste, — so  my  crops  increased  in  value.  It  was 
thus  demonstrable  that  manuring  would  pay.  On 
the  clover-field  the  most  signal  evidence  of  this  was 


212  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

apparent.  After  each  cutting  of  clover  had  been 
taken  to  the  barnyard,  the  liquor-cart  distributed 
over  the  newly  mown  sod  a  copious  supply  of  liquid 
manure,  thus  regularly  restoring  to  the  earth  an 
equivalent  for  the  crop  removed.  It  was  most  in- 
structive to  see  how  immediately  after  each  applica- 
tion the  well-rooted  clover  shot  up  into  luxuriant 
growth.  I  have  thus  mowed  it  three  times  in  a 
season,  and  can  readily  believe  that  in  the  moister 
climate  of  England  and  Flanders  as  many  as  six 
crops  are  annually  taken  from  grass  lands  thus 
treated  with  liquid  manure.  Indeed,  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  there  is  no  reasonable  limit  to  the 
yield  of  an  acre  of  ground  which  is  constantly 
and  heavily  manured,  and  cultivated  by  one  who 
thoroughly  understands  his  art. 

Three  years'  experience  of  profit  and  loss  is  quite 
suJSacient  for  the  purpose  of  this  volume.  It  has 
satisfied  me,  as  it  should  satisfy  others,  that  Ten 
Acres  are  Enough  I  give  the  following  recapitula- 
tion for  convenience  of  reference : 

Expenses  for  three  years.                   1855.  1856,  1857. 

Manures  of  various  kinds $268.00  $346,00  $358.06 

Wages  and  labor 102,00  238.00  244.00 

Feed  for  stock 28.00  79.30  103.00 

Stakes  and  twine  for  Lawtons. .. .  7.00  8.00 

Garden  and  other  seeds 8.00  13.00 

Cabbage  and  tomato  plants 30.00 

Lumber,  nails,  and  sundries 14.50  81.00 

Loss  on  cow 7.00 

Cost  of  pigs 12.00  12.00  12.00 

$455.00    $709.80    $806.06 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  213 

Receipts  for  three  years.                    1855.  1866.  1857. 

Strawberries,  6  acres $857.60  $903.00 

Lawton  plants  sold $460.00  213.50  101.00 

Tomatoes,  1  acre 120.00  190.00  192.00 

Garden,  including  ten  peach-trees.     80.00  121.00  152.00 

Cabbages 82.00  70.20 

Raspberries,  2  acres 38.72  267.00 

Lawtons,  1  acre 159.84  206.08 

Pork 49.00  58.00  61.00 

Potatoes. 24.00  40.00 

Calf 2.00  3.00 

Peaches,  804  trees,  first  bearing  year.  208.00 

$791.00  1,734.86  2,133.08 
Expenses  as  above  stated 455.00     709.80     806.06 

Annual  profit $336.00  1,025.06  1,327.02 

This  result  may  surprise  many  not  conversant 
with  the  profits  which  are  constantly  being  realized 
from  small  farms.  But  rejecting  the  income  from 
the  sale  of  plants,  the  pigs,  and  the  calf,  as  excep- 
tional things,  and  the  profit  of  the  nine  acres  for  the 
first  year  will  be  found  to  be  nothing  per  acre,  for 
the  second  year,  $83.50,  and  for  the  third,  $129.10. 
But  there  are  obvious  reasons  why  this  should  be 
so.  The  ground  was  crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity 
with  those  plants  only  which  yielded  the  very  high- 
est rate  of  profit,  and  for  which  there  was  an  unfail- 
ing demand.  In  addition  to  this,  it  was  cultivated 
with  the  most  unflagging  industry  and  care.  Be- 
sides using  the  contents  of  more  than  one  barnyard 
upon  it,  I  literally  manured  it  with  brains.  My 
whole  mind  and  energies  were  devoted  to  improving 
and  attending  to  it.    No  city  business  was  ever  more 


214  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

industriously  or  intelligently  supervised  than  this. 
But  if  the  reward  was  ample,  it  was  no  greater  than 
others  all  around  me  were  annually  realizing,  the 
only  difference  being  that  they  cultivated  more 
ground.  While  they  diffused  their  labor  over  twenty 
acres,  I  concentrated  mine  on  ten.  Yet,  having 
only  half  as  much  ground  to  work  over,  I  realized 
as  large  a  profit  as  the  average  of  them  all.  Con- 
centrated labor  and  manuring  thus  brought  the 
return  which  is  always  realized  from  them  when 
intelligently  combined. 

For  six  years  since  1857  I  have  continued  to  cul- 
tivate this  little  farm.  Sometimes  an  unpropitious 
season  has  cut  down  my  profits  to  a  low  figure,  but 
I  have  never  lost  money  on  the  year's  business.  Now 
and  then  a  crop  or  two  has  utterly  failed,  as  some 
seasons  are  too  dry,  and  others  are  too  wet.  But 
among  the  variety  cultivated  some  are  sure  to  suc- 
ceed. Only  once  or  twice  have  I  failed  to  invest  a 
few  hundred  dollars  at  the  year's  end.  All  other 
business  has  been  studiously  avoided.  I  have  spent 
considerable  money  in  adding  to  the  convenience  of 
my  dwelling,  and  the  extent  of  my  outbuildings ; 
among  the  latter  is  a  little  shop  furnished  with  more 
tools  than  are  generally  to  be  found  upon  a  farm, 
which  save  me  many  dollars  in  a  year,  and  many 
errands  to  the  carpenter  and  wheelwright.  The 
marriage  of  my  daughter  Kate  called  for  a  genteel 
outfit,  which  she  received  without  occasioning  me 
any  inconvenience.  I  buy  nothing  on  credit,  and 
for  more  than  ten  years  have  had  no  occasion  to 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  215 

give  a  note.  If  at  the  year's  end  we  are  found  to 
owe  anything  at  the  stores,  it  is  promptly  paid.  As 
means  increased,  my  family  has  lived  more  expen- 
sively, though  I  think  not  any  more  comfortably. 
I  lie  down  peacefully  at  night,  thinking  that  I  do 
not  deserve  more  than  others,  but  thankful  that  God 
has  given  me  more.  I  rise  in  the  morning  with  an 
appetite  for  labor  as  keen  as  that  for  breakfast.  But 
others  can  succeed  as  well  as  myself.  Capital  or  no 
capital,  the  proper  industry  and  determination  will 
certainly  be  rewarded  by  success. 


216  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

A    BAENYARD    MANUFACTORY LAND   ENOUGH — FAITH 

IN  MANURE. 

As  previously  stated,  there  is  no  successful  farm- 
ing without  a  liberal  expenditure  for  manure.  I 
had  proved  that  high  manuring  would  pay,  and 
while  anxious  to  increase  the  quantity,  was  desirous 
of  reducing  the  money-cost.  I  continued  every 
season  to  scour  the  neighborhood  for  leaves,  and  to 
gather  up  every  available  material  for  the  barnyard. 
But  in  addition  to  all  this,  in  October  and  November 
of  my  fourth  year  I  purchased  twenty  heifers  which 
would  calve  in  the  spring,  intending  to  feed  them 
through  the  winter,  and  then  sell  as  soon  as  they 
had  calved.  My  idea  was,  that  they  could  be  sold 
for  a  profit  large  enough  to  cover  the  cost  of  keep- 
ing them,  thus  having  the  manure  all  clear.  I  con- 
sulted many  persons  versed  in  this  business,  farmers, 
butchers,  and  others,  before  venturing  on  it,  as  it 
was  a  good  deal  out  of  my  usual  line  of  operations. 
I  also  consulted  all  my  files  of  agricultural  papers, 
where  I  found  set  forth  a  multitude  of  experiences 
on  tJie  subject,  the  most  of  which  led  me  to  conclude 
that  it  would  be  safe  to  try  the  experiment.  There 
seemed  to  be  but  little  danger  of  loss,  even  if  nothing 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  217 

were  made,  while  it  was  quite  certain  a  good  deal 
of  knowledge  would  be  gained. 

I  accordingly  had  a  rough  shed  built,  large  enough 
to  contain  twenty  cows,  with  an  entry  in  front  of 
them  and  a  large  feed-room  at  one  end.  Then  man- 
gers were  provided,  and  a  plank  gutter  laid  just 
back  of  where  the  cows  would  stand,  into  which  all 
the  droppings  would  fall,  and  down  which  the  water 
would  run  into  a  wide  earthen  pipe  which  emptied 
into  the  cistern  in  the  barnyard.  Here  the  cows 
stood  in  a  row,  never  being  allowed  to  go  out,  except 
an  hour  or  two  at  noon  when  the  weather  was  fine. 
I  agreed  with  Dick  to  take  entire  charge  of  the  feed- 
ing and  watering  them,  for  the  consideration  of  $30 
extra.  I  bought  the  cornstalks  from  some  twenty 
acres  near  me,  at  $3  an  acre,  and  these  were  deliv- 
ered from  time  to  time  as  they  were  needed,  there 
not  being  room  on  the  premises  for  so  large  a  quantity 
at  once.  I  had  provided  a  superior  cutter,  with 
which  Dick  cut  up  the  stalks  and  blades,  reducing 
them  to  pieces  a  half -inch  long,  and  he  then  put 
them  into  a  hogshead  of  water,  where  they  remained 
a  day  and  night  to  soak.  Thence  they  were  trans- 
ferred to  a  steaming  apparatus,  constructed  expressly 
for  this  purpose,  where  they  were  made  perfectly 
soft.  Corn  meal,  bran,  and  various  kinds  of  ground 
feed  were  mixed  in  and  steamed  with  the  cut  stalks, 
a  sprinkling  of  salt  being  added.  A  day's  feed  for 
the  whole  twenty  was  cooked  at  one  operation. 
This  preparation  came  out  soft  and  palatable,  and 
the  cows  took  to  it  greedily.    The  ground  feed  was 


218  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

varied  during  the  season,  and  occasionally  a  few 
turnips,  parsnips,  and  cabbages  were  cooked  up  to 
increase  the  variety.  I  had  no  hay  to  give  them, 
and  they  got  none. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  Dick  gave  them  four  good 
strong  messes  every  day,  that  at  night  being  a  very 
heavy  one.  He  said  they  throve  as  well  as  any  cat- 
tle he  had  ever  seen.  The  gutter  behind  them  was 
cleaned  out  twice  a  day  and  sprinkled  with  plaster, 
thus  keeping  the  place  always  clean  and  sweet.  In 
fact,  I  made  cleanliness  the  order  of  the  day  through- 
out the  entire  barnyard.  The  manure  was  thrown 
directly  from  the  gutter  into  a  wheelbarrow  having 
a  thick  layer  of  leaves  spread  over  its  bottom,  and 
then  emptied  in  a  heap  under  the  manure  shed.  As 
the  cows  were  also  littered  with  leaves,  these,  when 
too  foul  for  longer  use,  were  taken  to  the  same  heap. 
Others  were  added,  with  cornstalks  in  occasional 
layers ;  and  as  each  layer  was  deposited,  the  whole 
heap  was  saturated  with  liquor  from  the  cistern.  I 
do  not  think  a  better  lot  of  common  barnyard  ma- 
nure has  ever  been  manufactured.  Dick  entered  into 
the  spirit  of  the  experiment,  and  carried  it  through 
without  once  faltering. 

As  soon  as  the  cows  began  dropping  their  calves 
in  the  spring,  I  advertised  them,  and  plenty  of  pur- 
chasers appeared,  as  a  choice  out  of  twenty  was  of 
some  value.  They  had  cost  me  122  each.  I  had 
kept  them  an  average  of  one  hundred  and  forty  days 
for  each  cow,  at  a  cost  of  six  cents  per  day  for  each, 
or  $8.40,  making  with  the  first  cost  $30.40  per  cow, 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  219 

or  $608  for  the  whole.  To  this  was  added  160  for 
cornstalks  and  $40  for  Dick,  making  a  grand  total 
of  $708.  I  sold  them  at  an  average  of  $35.50,  and 
thus  realized  $710,  or  a  cash  profit  of  $2.  Instead  of 
paying  Dick  $30  for  his  trouble,  I  told  the  fellow 
that  as  he  had  performed  his  duty  so  satisfactorily, 
he  should  have  $40.  This  little  voluntary  contri- 
bution so  gratified  him,  that  I  feel  assured  its  value 
has  been  refunded  to  me  fourfold,  by  his  subsequent 
attention  as  a  professor  of  the  art  and  mystery  of 
manufacturing  manure. 

Thus  I  made  $2  in  cash  by  the  operation,  besides 
having  a  great  quantity  of  cornstalks  left  over,  and 
a  pile  of  manure  certainly  as  ample  as  any  for  which 
I  had  paid  $250.  Moreover,  it  was  on  my  own  prem- 
ises ;  it  had  been  most  carefully  attended  to  during 
the  whole  process  of  manufacture ;  I  knew  what  it 
was  composed  of,  and  that  the  seeds  of  noxious  weeds 
could  not  have  been  added  to  it.  All  these  facts 
gave  it  value  over  the  chance  lots  which  farmers  are 
often  compelled  to  purchase,  and  from  which  their 
fields  are  many  times  sowed  with  thousands  of 
weeds.  Here  was  a  clear  saving  of  $250  added  to 
my  profits. 

The  result  was  so  encouraging,  that  I  have  con- 
tinued the  practice  of  thus  feeding  cattle  during  the 
winter  from  that  day  to  this,  increasing  the  number, 
however,  to  twenty-five.  I  find  no  difficulty  in 
making  sales  in  the  spring.  Sometimes  I  have  lost 
a  few  dollars  on  a  winter's  operations,  sometimes 
made  a  little  profit,  and  sometimes  come  out  just 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

even.  On  the  run  of  four  years  there  has  been  no 
profit  beyond  the  manure;  but  that  much  is  all 
clear.  Thus  the  winter,  instead  of  being  a  season 
of  suspended  profits  as  formerly,  is  now  one  of  posi- 
tive gain.  The  operation  of  thus  feeding  cattle  is 
certainly  attended  with  trouble.  But  once  provided 
with  all  the  conveniences  for  carrying  it  on,  it  is  not 
only  simple  and  easy,  but  becomes  even  interesting. 
No  one  who  has  not  tried  it  in  a  careful,  methodical 
way,  can  have  any  idea  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  manure  heaps  grow,  nor  the  size  to  which  they 
ultimately  attain.  My  neighbors  having  long  since 
ceased  to  be  amused  at  what  they  facetiously  called 
the  novelty  of  my  operations,  did  not  venture  to 
ridicule  even  this.  On  the  contrary,  they  rather  ap- 
proved of  it,  though  not  one  of  them  could  tell  how 
much  it  cost  to  keep  a  cow  per  week.  But  I  impute 
no  part  of  my  success  to  their  approval.  The  prac- 
tice is  intrinsically  a  good  one,  and  only  needs  being 
carried  on  properly  to  make  it  pay. 

Let  me  add,  that  there  is  a  very  cheap  and  con- 
venient mode  of  covering  manure  from  the  weather, 
which  I  have  constantly  practised,  thus  avoiding  the 
cost  of  building  sheds.  I  took  inch  boards  which 
were  sixteen  feet  long,  and  sawed  them  in  half, 
making  two  lengths,  each  eight  feet.  The  boards 
were  as  wide  as  could  be  had,  say  twenty  inches. 
Battens  were  then  nailed  across  each  end  and  the 
centre,  to  prevent  warping.  Then  to  each  end  a 
board  of  equal  width,  and  five  feet  long,  was  secured 
by  strap  hinges.    The  manure  heap  was  then  built 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  221 

up,  say  five  feet  high,  and  eight  wide  at  the  top. 
When  thus  finished,  one  of  the  boards  was  placed 
across  the  top;  the  ends  being  hinged,  fell  down 
over  the  sides  of  the  heap,  and  touched  the  ground. 
Beginning  at  one  end  of  the  heap,  the  hinged  boards 
were  laid  on  until  they  reached  to  the  other  end. 
Thus  the  entire  heap,  except  the  ends,  was  com- 
pletely protected  from  the  weather.  The  ends  were 
covered  with  loose  boards.  Whenever  rain  was 
coming  on,  and  it  was  thought  the  heap  needed 
water  to  prevent  fire-fanging,  this  portable  shed  was 
lifted  off  in  five  minutes.  After  receiving  a  good 
soaking,  the  shed  was  in  five  more  minutes  replaced 
on  the  heap ;  and  when  no  composting  was  going 
on,  the  boards  were  simply  stowed  away  in  some 
by-place  until  again  wanted.  To  those  who  be- 
lieve in  the  value  of  housing  manure,  but  who  can- 
not afford  to  erect  buildings  for  the  purpose,  these 
portable  sheds  will  be  found,  for  $10,  to  be  as  effec- 
tual as  a  building  costing  $60,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  do  not  occupy  any  useful  ground. 

I  will  not  say  that  ten  acres  in  New  Jersey  can 
be  made  to  produce  more  money  than  ten  acres 
located  elsewhere,  within  reach  of  the  great  city 
markets.  Without  doubt,  the  productiveness  of 
either  tract  will  be  in  exact  proportion  to  the  care 
and  skill  of  cultivation,  and  the  thoroughness  of 
manuring.  In  either  case,  it  is  utter  folly  for  a  man 
to  attempt  the  cultivation  of  more  land  than  he  can 
manage  thoroughly.  The  chances  are  then  invari- 
ably against  him.    I  consider  the  real  office  of  the 


222  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

ground  to  be  merely  that  of  holding  a  plant  in  an 
erect  position,  while  you  feed  the  roots.  But  it  is 
nevertheless  remarkable  that  the  census  tables  show 
that  the  product  of  New  Jersey  per  acre,  when  the 
whole  area  of  the  State  is  taken  into  account,  is  con- 
siderably greater  than  in  any  of  the  adjoining  States. 
The  product  per  acre,  in  some  of  the  fruit-growing 
counties  nearest  the  two  great  cities,  is  even  more 
remarkable.  The  average  cash  value  of  the  prod- 
ucts of  all  our  market  gardens  is  $20  annually,  while 
that  of  the  gardens  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
is  only  15  each.  Of  our  orchards  it  is  125,  while  in 
New  York  it  is  only  $10,  and  in  Pennsylvania  only 
$5.  The  value  of  agricultural  implements  and 
machinery  is  relatively  far  greater  than  in  either  of 
these  empire  States.  Nothing  short  of  a  superior 
productiveness  for  truck  and  fruit,  in  the  soil  of 
New  Jersey,  can  account  for  such  results. 

A  farmer  in  my  neighborhood  sold  from  forty 
early  apple-trees,  occupying  about  one  acre  of  land, 
400  baskets  of  fruit,  which  yielded,  after  deducting 
expenses,  and  ten  per  cent,  commission  for  selling* 
$241.50.  I  have  known  pears  to  be  sold  at  from  $3 
to  $5  per  basket,  and  in  smaller  quantities  at  $2  a 
half-peck ;  and  three  cherry-trees,  of  the  early  Rich- 
mond variety,  yielded  $30  worth  of  fruit.  Peach- 
trees,  when  protected  from  the  worm,  will  bear  lux- 
uriantly for  twenty  years. 

I  know  a  small  farmer,  with  six  acres  of  rhubarb, 
who  has  realized  $600  dollars  annually  from  it. 
Another  has  twenty  acres  of  asparagus,  from  which 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  223 

he  realizes  1600  per  week  during  the  season  for 
cutting.  Besides,  it  grows  an  acre  of  common 
gooseberries,  from  which  his  annual  profit  is  1200. 
I  have  known  another  to  sell  1500  worth  of  tomatoes 
from  a  single  acre,  besides  having  many  bushels  for 
the  hog-pen.  I  could  name  owners  of  very  small 
tracts  who  are  doing  well  in  the  same  business. 
Asparagus,  strawberries,  raspberries,  blackberries, 
currants,  grapes,  and  gooseberries,  grow  to  perfec- 
tion, and  yield  enormous  returns  when  properly 
attended  to,  far  surpassing  anything  ever  obtained 
from  the  heavier  stable  crops,  such  as  grain,  grass, 
and  stock. 

But  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  greater  profit  per 
acre  is  almost  invariably  realized  by  those  who  have 
very  small  farms.  The  less  they  have,  the  more 
thoroughly  it  is  cultivated ;  while  the  few  who  have 
sufiicient  faith  in  manure,  and  who  thus  convert 
their  entire  holding  into  a  garden,  realize  twice 
or  thrice  as  much  per  annum  as  they  had  paid  for 
the  land.  I  knew  a  striking  illustration  of  the  value 
of  this  faith  in  manure.  It  is  in  the  person  of  a 
Jerseyman  who  began,  twenty-five  years  ago,  upon 
a  single  acre  of  rented  land,  with  a  capital  of  only 
$50,  borrowed  from  a  sister  who  had  saved  it  from 
her  earnings  as  a  dairymaid.  This  man  regarded 
the  earth  as  of  no  practical  use  except  to  receive  and 
hold  manure  ;  and  his  idea  was,  that  if  he  crowded 
it  full  enough,  every  rain  would  extract  from  it,  and 
convey  directly  to  the  roots  of  the  plants,  the  liquid 
nutriment  which  gives  to  all  vegetation  such  amaz- 


224  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

ing  vigor.  Thus,  the  solids,  if  in  sufiBcient  supply, 
would  be  sure  to  furjiish  the  liquids,  on  which  he 
knew  he  could  rely.  Though  full  of  original  and 
practical  ideas,  this  was  his  absorbing  one  ;  and  he 
pursued  it  with  an  energy  of  purpose  and  a  liberality 
of  expenditure  that  surprised  the  population  of  an 
entire  township. 

In  spite  of  the  disadvantages  attendant  on  a  neg- 
lected education,  the  force  of  this  man's  strong  nat- 
ural sense  carried  him  forward  with  astonishing 
rapidity.  True  to  his  faith  in  manure,  he  bought 
and  manufactured  to  an  extent  far  exceeding  all  his 
neighbors.  He  soon  obtained  possession  of  a  small 
farm,  with  ample  time  allowed  for  payment ;  for  his 
industry  and  skill  established  a  character,  and  char- 
acter served  for  capital.  In  a  few  years  he  monopo- 
lized the  contents  of  all  the  pig-pens  in  the  city  near 
which  he  resided,  all  that  was  produced  by  the 
slaughter-houses,  all  the  lime  from  the  gas-works, 
all  the  spent  bark  from  the  tanneries,  and  every  tub 
of  night-soil  which  came  from  the  water-closets  of 
a  large  population.  He  created  a  demand  for  ma- 
nure so  general,  that  the  streets  were  traversed  by 
men  and  boys  with  carts  and  handbarrows,  who 
daily  picked  up  the  droppings  from  the  numerous 
live-stock  which  passed  over  the  roads,  and  piled 
them  snugly  in  fence-corners,  composting  them  with 
leaves  and  rubbish,  knowing  that  the  great  manure 
king  would  take  them  all.  The  quantity  thus  col- 
lected by  these  industrious  scavengers  was  very 
large.    In  addition  to  all  this,  he  purchased  cargoes 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  225 

of  marl,  charcoal  cinders  from  the  pines,  guano,  and 
sloop-loads  of  manures  from  the  city.  The  world 
within  his  reach  seemed  unable  to  supply  his  vast 
demand. 

His  cash  outlay  for  these  fertilizers  was  of  course 
enormous,  and  has  amounted  to  thousands  of  dollars 
per  annum.  It  has  been  constantly  increasing,  and 
grows  even  as  I  write.  But  his  faith  in  manure  was 
accompanied  by  works.  What  he  thus  collected  at 
so  great  a  cost,  was  applied  with  singular  shrewdness 
to  the  production  of  fruits  and  vegetables  for  the 
great  city  markets.  His  fields  rewarded  him  in  pro- 
portion as  he  enriched  them.  His  neighbors,  who, 
for  miles  around,  had  been  astonished  and  incredu- 
lous at  his  unprecedented  outlay  for  manure,  were 
in  turn  astonished  at  the  extraordinary  quantities 
of  fruit  and  truck  which  he  dispatched  to  market. 
As  he  went  early  and  largely  into  the  growing  of 
rhubarb,  when  all  others  were  too  timid  even  to 
touch  it,  so  for  years  he  was  the  only  man  who  sent 
tons  of  it  to  market  during  a  long  period  in  which 
it  paid  extravagant  profits.  By  skilfully  regulating 
his  crops,  he  secured  an  uninterrupted  succession 
during  the  entire  season  ;  so  that  from  the  earliest 
to  the  latest  period  of  the  year  he  was  constantly 
receiving  large  cash  returns.  His  wagons  have  some- 
times loaded  an  entire  steamboat,  sometimes  an 
entire  train  upon  the  railroad.  By  growing  aspara- 
gus, he  has  realized  great  profits.  For  years  he 
commanded  the  Baltimore  markets  with  his  straw- 
berries, while  various  other  large  towns  depended 
IS 


226  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

on  him  for  their  supplies.  I  have  been  upon  his 
thirty  acres  of  this  fruit  during  the  height  of  the 
season,  when  fifty  pickers  were  at  work  on  ground 
which  wore  a  tinge  of  luscious  scarlet  under  the 
astonishing  profusion  of  the  crop ;  while  thousands 
of  quarts,  under  adjacent  sheds,  were  in  process  of 
being  boxed  for  market.  Of  this  fruit  he  has  sent 
ninety  bushels  to  market  in  a  single  day,  distributed 
$300  in  a  week  among  his  pickers,  while  in  the 
boxes  to  contain  them  his  investment  is  $1,500.  On 
strawberries  alone  this  man  could  have  grown  rich. 

But  they  are  scarcely  a  tithe  of  what  he  has  pro- 
duced. Raspberries,  blackberries,  and  all  the'smaller 
fruits  have  been  cultivated  quite  as  extensively. 
The  same  courageous  intelligence  which  led  him  to 
outstrip  all  competitors  in  the  application  of  ma- 
nure, kept  him  awake  to  every  improvement  in  fruit 
or  vegetable  as  it  came  before  the  public.  He  not 
only  procured  the  best  of  every  kind,  but  bought 
them  early,  no  matter  how  extravagant  the  price. 
Thus  keeping  in  advance  of  all  others,  so  his  profits 
have  exceeded  theirs.  More  than  once  he  has  been 
cheated  by  the  purchase  of  novelties  of  this  kind, 
besides  losing  time  and  money  in  cultivating  them 
long  enough  to  prove  the  cheat;  but  these  losses 
have  been  but  as  dust  in  the  great  balance  of  his 
profit. 

As  may  be  supposed,  such  a  man  could  not  fail 
to  become  rich.  From  his  humble  beginning  of  a 
single  acre  he  has  gone  on  adding  farm  to  farm, 
house  to  house,  and  lot  to  lot,  and  is  ever  on  hand 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  227 

to  purchase  more.  His  passion  is  to  own  land.  But 
even  so  thorough  a  farmer  as  he  may  in  the  end 
acquire  too  much  to  be  profitable. 

The  example  thus  set  has  had  a  marked  influence 
on  the  population  of  entire  townships.  Men  who  at 
first,  and  who  even  for  years,  were  incredulous  of  the 
propriety  of  using  such  vast  quantities  of  manure,  at 
length  became  converts  to  the  example.  High  farm- 
ing thus  came  extensively  into  vogue.  Meantime 
the  facilities  for  getting  to  market  were  being  con- 
stantly multiplied.  New  fertilizers  were  introduced 
and  kept  for  sale  in  all  the  country  towns,  the  facility 
for  obtaining  them  thus  inducing  a  general  consump- 
tion. As  crops  increased,  so  the  great  cities  grew  in 
size,  the  number  of  mouths  to  be  fed  enlarging  with 
the  supply  of  food.  Under  the  pressure  of  all  these 
several  inducements,  fruit  and  truck  have  been  pro- 
duced in  quantities  that  cannot  be  estimated. 

The  first  great  impulse  to  its  enlarged  production 
in  the  neighborhood  where  the  enterprising  con- 
sumer of  manure  resided,  to  whom  reference  has  been 
made,  was  the  result  of  his  example.  His  great  suc- 
cess removed  all  doubt  and  disarmed  all  opposition. 
But  even  his  was  not  achieved  without  unremitting 
industry  and  intelligent  application  of  the  mind. 
Neither  his  hands  nor  the  manure  did  everything. 
But  manure  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the  edifice : 
without  it  he  would  have  toiled  in  vain  to  build  up 
an  ample  fortune  from  the  humblest  of  beginnings. 
As  he  succeeded,  so  let  others  take  counsel,  and  have 
faith  in  manure. 


228  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PEOFITS  OF  FRUIT-GROWING THE    TRADE  IN  BERRIES. 

It  cannot  be  supposed  that  agriculture  is  always 
a  successful  pursuit.  On  the  contrary,  we  know  it 
many  times  to  be  the  reverse.  But  when  one  looks 
carefully  into  that  branch  of  it  which  embraces  fruits, 
especially  the  smaller  kinds,  the  evidences  in  its 
favor  as  a  money- making  business  multiply  as  we 
proceed.  The  reader  must  have  some  knowledge  of 
the  prodigious  profits  realized  a  few  years  since  by 
the  peach-growers  in  Delaware,  where  800  acres 
were  cultivated  in  that  fruit  by  a  single  individual. 
At  one  time  he  was  compelled  to  charter  several 
steamboats  during  the  entire  season,  to  convey  his 
thousands  of  baskets  to  market.  From  only  70  acres 
the  owner  has  realized  a  net  profit  of  $12,000,  in 
one  season.  The  instance  of  my  relative  in  Ohio, 
mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter,  affords  another 
illustration  of  what  a  very  small  orchard  can  be 
made  to  yield.  I  have  known  single  peach-trees  in 
gardens,  in  seasons  when  the  general  crop  was  short, 
producing  as  much  as  $20  each.  Those  who  buy 
single  peaches  at  the  street  corners  in  our  cities,  one 
or  two  for  a  dime,  can  readily  understand  these 
figures.     I  could  point  out  a  garden  belonging  to  a 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  229 

widow,  containing  twelve  plum-trees,  from  which 
she  regularly  receives  $60  every  year,  and  some- 
times even  more.  Grapes  are  never  so  abundant 
in  market  as  to  reduce  the  price  below  the  point  of 
profit. 

The  prices  paid  for  pears  are  such  as  to  seem  ab- 
surdly high.  But  even  when  rebellion  had  most  de- 
pressed the  market,  I  knew  a  single  tree  to  net  $23 
to  the  owner.  Another  grower,  from  three  trees, 
annually  receives  $60.  A  citizen  of  New  York  is 
the  owner  of  three  pear-trees  which  have  yielded 
eleven  barrels,  and  produced  $137.  There  is  another 
tree  in  that  State  seventy  years  old,  from  which,  in 
that  period,  $3,750  worth  of  pears  have  been  sold — 
enough  to  pay  for  a  farm.  A  young  orchard  of  four 
hundred  trees,  some  eight  years  after  planting,  at 
two  years'  crops  yielded  the  owner  $1,460.  An  acre 
of  the  best  pear-trees,  well  managed,  will  produce 
more  profit  than  a  five-hundred-acre  farm,  without 
a  twentieth  of  the  care  or  capital. 

But  examples  almost  without  number  may  be 
given,  where  apple-trees  also  have  yielded  from  five 
to  ten  dollars  a  year  in  fruit,  and  many  instances  in 
which  twenty  or  thirty  dollars  have  been  obtained. 
If  one  tree  of  the  Rhode  Island  Greening  will  afford 
forty  bushels  of  fruit,  at  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  per 
bushel,  which  has  often  occurred,  forty  such  trees  on 
an  acre  would  yield  a  crop  worth  four  hundred  dol- 
lars. But  taking  one  quarter  of  this  amount  as  a 
low  average  for  all  seasons,  and  with  imperfect  cul- 
tivation, one  hundred  dollars  will  still  be  equal  to  the 


230  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

interest  on  fifteen  hundred  per  acre.  Now,  this  esti- 
mate is  based  upon  the  price  of  good  winter  apples 
for  the  past  thirty  years,  in  one  of  our  most  produc- 
tive districts ;  let  a  similar  estimate  be  made  with 
fruits  rarer  and  of  a  more  delicate  character.  Apri- 
cots and  the  finer  varieties  of  the  plum  are  often  sold 
for  three  to  six  dollars  a  bushel,  and  the  best  early 
peaches  from  one  to  three  dollars.  An  acquaintance 
received  eight  dollars  for  a  crop  grown  on  two  fine 
young  cherry-trees,  and  twenty-four  dollars  frem 
four  young  peach-trees  of  only  four  years'  growth 
from  the  bud.  In  Western  New  York,  single  trees 
of  the  Doyenne  or  Virgalieu  pear  have  often  afforded 
a  return  of  twenty  dollars  or  more,  after  being  sent 
hundreds  of  miles  to  market. 

These  standard  fruits,  requiring  several  years  to 
come  into  bearing,  are  too  slow  for  the  majority  of 
cultivators,  who,  like  myself,  need  something  which 
will  pay  in  a  year  or  two.  The  whole  berry  family 
is  pre-eminently  adapted  to  meet  this  demand  for 
immediate  profit.  Happily  for  the  multitude  en- 
gaged in  its  propagation,  the  business  cannot  be  over- 
done. Could  an  exact  calculation  be  made  of  the 
money  expended  in  the  city  of  New  York  merely  for 
the  small  fruits,  the  amount  would  be  so  enormous 
as  to  be  scarcely  credible,  and  would  go  far  to  prove 
the  immense  wealth  which  actually  exists,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  thousands  are  suffering  all  the  stings 
of  poverty.  Take  the  strawberry  as  a  faint  index 
of  the  large  sums  of  money  that  are  annually  laid 
out  in  the  different  varieties  of  fruit.     One  of  the 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  231 

most  ephemeral  of  all  fruits,  only  lasting  its  brief 
month,  the  strawberry  nevertheless  plays  no  insig- 
nificant part  in  the  role  of  our  early  summer  busi- 
ness. In  fact,  this  little  berry  may  be  said  to  be  the 
prime  favorite  of  the  season.  Of  a  delicious  flavor, 
with  just  sufficient  of  tartness  to  render  it  agreeable, 
it  commends  itself  to  the  taste  of  young  and  old ; 
while  its  cooling  properties  render  it  highly  bene- 
ficial, in  a  hygienic  point  of  view,  during  the  early 
heats  of  the  dog-days.  Then  its  cheapness  places  it 
within  the  reach  of  the  poorest.  It  is  alike  welcome 
to  the  schoolboy  who  has  a  few  cents  of  pocket 
money  to  invest  in  such  delicacies  as  schoolboys  are 
wont  to  indulge  in ;  to  the  laboring  man,  after  the 
burden  and  heat  of  the  day  are  over ;  and  to  the 
wealthy,  who  has  at  his  command  the  means  of  en- 
joyment of  the  most  expensive  kind. 

The  first  strawberries  during  the  season  generally 
appear  at  the  Broadway  saloons  about  the  middle  of 
May,  and  are  sold  at  the  very  modest  price  of  fifty 
cents  per  pint  basket.  A  placard  in  the  window 
announces  that  a  plateful,  with  cream,  may  be  had 
for  a  similar  small  consideration.  These  early 
strawberries  are  from  Virginia;  but  as  they  are 
small,  with  immaturity  stamped  upon  them,  it  is  to 
be  presumed  that  there  is  not  a  very  great  rush  for 
fifty  cents'  worth,  even  by  such  as  feel  like  boast- 
ing that  they  had  eaten  strawberries  and  cream  ere 
the  frosts  of  winter  had  well  disappeared.  Soon, 
however.  New  Jersey  begins  to  give  up  her  stores 
of  the  delicious  fruit,  and  prices  fall  from  fifty  to 


232  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

fifteen,  from  fifteen  to  six,  from  six  to  five,  and 
finally  from  five  to  three  cents  per  pint. 

Almost  the  entire  early  crop  of  the  New  York 
market  is  grown  in  New  Jersey,  and  by  far  the 
largest  quantity  brought  into  the  city  by  any  one 
route  reaches  New  York  by  the  New  York  and  Erie 
Railroad  Company.  The  berries  are  conveyed  in 
carts  and  wagons  from  the  gardens  where  they  are 
grown  to  the  several  railroad  stations,  whence  they 
find  their  way  to  the  respective  ferries.  Great 
quantities,  however,  are  conveyed  in  wagons  direct 
to  the  ferries.  Hence  it  is  next  to  impossible  to 
obtain  exact  information  of  the  actual  quantities 
brought  into  the  city,  and  consumed  by  the  inhabit- 
ants. All  that  can  be  done  is  to  convey  an  approxi- 
mate idea  of  the  immense  extent  of  the  trade,  leav- 
ing the  reader  to  imagine  what  must  be  the  actual 
quantity,  since  that  of  which  authentic  information 
can  be  obtained  is  so  enormous. 

The  berries  are  largely  shipped  from  Burlington, 
Monmouth,  and  Middlesex  counties  in  New  Jersey. 
Large  quantities  are  also  grown  in  Bergen.  The  Ber- 
gen County  Journal  says,  that  from  data  furnished, 
it  considers  10,000,000  baskets  a  low  estimate  of  the 
quantity  sent  to  market  in  one  season  from  that 
county  alone.  This  evidently  is  a  mistake,  for,  after 
a  very  close  inquiry  into  the  matter,  it  does  not 
appear  that  anything  like  that  quantity  has  reached 
New  York  from  all  places  where  the  berry  is  grown. 
Even  supposing  that  other  markets  besides  that  of 
New  York  are  indicated,  the  quantity  named  seems 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  233 

too  large  for  credibility,  as  having  been  grown  in  a 
single  county,  however  favorable  the  soil  may  be  to 
the  production  of  the  fruit,  and  notwithstanding  the 
utmost  indefatigability  of  the  growers;  and  the 
more  so  when  the  Journal  adds,  "  That  thousands, 
perhaps  millions  of  baskets,  have  rotted  on  the 
vines." 

The  opening  of  the  Northern  Railroad  of  New 
Jersey  to  Piermont,  is  another  circumstance  which 
has  given  an  impetus  to  the  trade.  The  opening 
took  place  just  at  the  commencement  of  the  season 
of  1859, — not  early  enough  for  the  growers  to  make 
their  arrangements  for  a  very  large  crop,  but  just  in 
time  to  enable  them  to  take  full  advantage  of  the 
means  of  transit  over  the  line,  of  the  then  ripening 
crop.  Accordingly,  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained, 
400,000  baskets  were  brought  over  the  new  road. 
This  looks  well  for  a  commencement,  and  holds  out 
a  good  promise  of  an  enormous  trade  in  future  sea- 
sons. The  section  of  country  through  which  the 
line  runs,  quietly  undulating,  is  well  watered,  and 
admirably  adapted  to  the  growth  of  the  strawberry  ; 
and  as  the  settlements  are  within  easy  distances  of 
the  stations,  the  fruit  can  be  sent  into  market  fresh 
picked  and  sound,  retaining  its  full,  rich  flavor. 

The  cultivation  of  the  strawberry  is  very  little 
attended  to  on  Long  Island.  On  inquiry  at  the 
railroad  station  there,  it  was  found  that  so  small  is 
the  quantity  brought  over  by  it,  that  it  was  not 
deemed  worth  while  to  charge  freight  for  the  few 
parcels  carried  by  travellers.     The  quantity  may  be 


234  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

safely  set  down  at  25,000  baskets.  No  business  is 
done  in  this  fruit  over  the  Hudson  or  the  Harlem 
and  New  Haven  Railroads. 

Besides  the  railroads,  the  steamboats  bring  to 
market  large  quantities  of  the  fruit.  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  obtain  correct  statistical  information  of  the 
trade  from  this  source.  The  quantity  brought  from 
Keyport,  N.  J.,  alone,  by  two  vessels,  has  been 
estimated  at  1,750,000  baskets. 

The  following  is  an  epitome  of  the  business  done, 
as  far  as  can  be  ascertained  : — 

Baskets. 

Over  the  New  York  and  Erie  Railroad 3,253,407 

"      **    Railroadof  Northern  New  Jersey..      400,000 

*♦      •*    Long  Island  Railroad 25,000 

♦'      *'    Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad 1,100,000 

From  Keyport,  in  vessels 1,750,000 

"      Hoboken  and  other  places,  in  wagons. .     500,000 

7,028,407 

Say  seven  millions  of  baskets,  in  round  numbers. 
Of  the  three  and  a  quarter  millions  brought  over 
the  New  York  and  Erie  Railroad,  somewhat  more 
than  one-half  are  from  Ramsey's  and  Allendale 
station,  and  the  remainder  from  the  stations  on  the 
Union  Railroad  and  the  Piermont  Branch.  Of  those 
brought  by  the  Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad,  the 
great  bulk  is  from  Burlington  county. 

It  is  difficult  to  form  a  correct  estimate  of  the 
average  price  at  which  strawberries  sell;  but  by 
carefully  collating  the  statements  of  the  principal 
wholesale  dealers,  and  taking  the  mean  of  the  sev- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  235 

eral  prices,  throughout  the  season,  13  per  hundred 
baskets,  by  wholesale,  seems  to  be  pretty  near  the 
mark.  From  the  wholesale  dealers  the  article  some- 
times changes  hands  twice,  before  reaching  the  con- 
sumer, who,  taking  the  average,  may  be  said  to  have 
paid  3^  cents  per  basket,  or  $3.50  per  hundred. 
Consequently,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  retailer  makes 
but  a  small  profit,  especially  in  cases  where  the 
strawberries  reach  him  through  the  hands  of  the 
middleman,  who  of  course  manages  to  make  his 
share  of  gain  in  the  transfer.  The  wholesale  dealers 
generally  sell  on  commission,  accounting  to  the 
growers  for  their  sales,  and  reserving  ten  per  cent, 
for  their  trouble.  The  largest  quantity  sold  by  any 
one  dealer  is  about  300,000  baskets.  The  freight 
charge  over  the  railroads  is  12i  cents  per  hundred 
baskets. 

The  following  figures  will  show  what  a  conspicu- 
ous part  this  apparently  insignificant  berry  plays 
in  our  social  economics : 

700,000  baskets,  at  $3.75  per  hundred $210,000 

Profit  to  the  retailers,  at  75  cents  per  hundred 45,000 

Commission  to  wholesale  dealers,  at  10  per  cent 21,000 

Freight,  at  12i  cents  per  hundred,  all  round 8,750 

This  is  only  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  but  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  thousands  of  baskets  of 
strawberries  find  their  way  into  the  New  York 
markets,  of  which  no  account  can  be  obtained,  thus 
tending  to  swell  the  enormous  expenditure  on  this 
almost  the  smallest  of  summer  fruits. 


236  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

It  is  equally  difficult  to  ascertain  the  quantity  of 
this  fruit  which  pours  into  Philadelphia  also,  during 
the  season,  but  it  is  probably  two-thirds  as  great  as 
that  which  goes  to  New  York.  There  are  numerous 
growers  near  the  former  city,  who  dispatch  to  it 
from  twenty  to  sixty  bushels  each,  daily. 

An  experienced  writer  on  this  subject  estimates 
the  consumption  of  strawberries  in  the  four  great 
cities  as  follows — 

New  York 54,000  bushels. 

Philadelphia 14,000 

Boston 11,000        ** 

Cincinnati 14,000        ** 

This  estimate  of  the  consumption  of  Philadelphia 
is  a  very  erroneous  one,  as  the  consumption  must 
fully  equal  that  of  New  York.  In  1860,  no  less  than 
173,500  quarts  of  strawberries  passed  through  the 
gates  of  only  one  of  the  numerous  gravel  turnpikes 
in  New  Jersey,  on  their  way  to  Philadelphia.  This 
is  equal  to  5,442|-  bushels,  more  than  one-third  of 
the  quantity  estimated  as  above. 

He  says  that  8,000,000  baskets  (five  to  the  quart) 
have  been  received  in  New  York  in  a  season.  He 
adds,  that  the  crop  around  these  four  cities  does  not 
exceed  25  to  50  bushels  per  acre,  although  instances 
are  reported  where  100,  and  even  130  to  140  bushels 
have  been  produced  on  an  acre,  or  in  that  propor- 
tion. The  returns,  therefore,  vary  from  $100  to  $800 
per  acre,  and  the  prices  range  from  $1.50  down  to 
12^  cents  a  quart.  The  former  price  is  readily  ob- 
tained in  Washington  at  the  opening  of  the  season. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  237 

He  thence  argues  that  in  order  to  supply  New 
York  and  vicinity  with  strawberries,  about  1,500 
acres,  of  the  choicest  land  is  required,  and  500  for 
the  other  cities  named.  This  he  alleges  to  be  at 
least  four  times  as  much  land  as  is  either  appropriate 
or  necessary  for  the  object,  if  the  nature  and  cultiva- 
tion of  the  strawberry  were  only  as  well  understood 
as  the  raising  of  corn.  He  contends  that  a  crop  of 
thirty  bushels  of  strawberries  to  the  acre,  is  only 
about  proportionate  to  a  corn  crop  of  ten  bushels  on 
the  same  ground.  He  says  that  a  strawberry  plant- 
ation is  seldom  seen  without  having,  after  the  first 
year,  many  more  plants  upon  the  ground  than  can 
obtain  air  or  light  sufficient  to  fruit  well.  The  con- 
sequence is,  that  all  our  city  markets  are  mainly  sup- 
plied with  inferior  fruit,  simply  because  some  of  the 
commonest  kinds  continue  to  produce  a  little  stunted, 
sour  fruit,  even  under  the  worst  treatment.  Supe- 
rior, well-grown  fruit  will  easily  produce  twice  and 
four  times  as  much  to  the  acre,  and  will  command 
prices  from  two  to  four  times  larger  in  the  city  mar- 
kets :  making  the  avails  and  the  difference  from  the 
same  land  to  be  25  bushels  at  12^  cents  a  quart,  or 
at  least  125  bushels  at  25  cents  a  quart,  or  $1,000  or 
$100  an  acre.  He  lays  it  down  that  an  acre  ought 
to  be  made  to  yield  125  bushels,  and  that  no  grower 
should  be  satisfied  with  less. 

That  this  yield  and  these  profits  can  be  realized, 
there  are  numerous  evidences.  Small  plots  of 
ground,  thoroughly  cultivated,  have  yielded  even  a 
double  ratio.     One  grower  in  Connecticut  realized 


238  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

$215  from  strawberries  raised  on  twenty-five  rods 
of  ground,  or  at  the  rate  of  $1,300  per  acre.  A  cit- 
izen of  Maine  has  raised  them,  on  a  small  lot,  at  the 
rate  of  800  bushels  an  acre.  Another  in  New  Jersey 
cleared  $1,100  from  three  acres,  and  one  of  the  agri- 
cultural societies  in  that  State  awarded  the  straw- 
berry premium  to  a  gentleman  whose  ground  pro- 
duced them  at  the  rate  of  $1,222  an  acre,  clear 
profit.  I  have  seen  a  crop  ripening  on  three  acres 
for  which  the  owner  was  offered  $800  as  it  stood, 
the  buyer  to  pick  and  take  it  away  at  his  own  ex- 
pense. The  offer  was  declined,  and  the  owner  re- 
alized $1,300  clear.  Mr.  Fuller,  of  Brooklyn,  has 
grown  at  the  rate  of  600  bushels  per  acre,  on  a 
small  plot  of  the  Bartlett ;  and  by  the  same  mode  of 
treatment,  400  of  the  Triomphe  de  Gand. 

All  these  returns  are  unquestionably  the  effects  of 
high  culture.  Those  who  fail  to  practise  it,  also 
fail  to  realize  such  returns.  The  slovenly  cultivator 
complains  that  his  strawberries  run  out.  But  this 
is  because  he  permits  the  weeds  and  grass  to  run  in 
and  occupy  the  ground.  The  plant  has  no  inherent 
tendency  to  degenerate.  For  the  last  few  years,  im- 
mense demand  has  existed  for  Wilson's  Albany 
Seedling.  Those  at  all  conversant  with  the  subject, 
know  that  plenty  of  room  is  requisite  to  get  the 
greatest  quantity  of  runners  from  a  given  number 
of  plants — the  sale  being  perfectly  sure,  all  dealers 
give  this  room  ;  the  consequence  is,  while  the  plants 
are  worth  say  $10  per  1000,  all  are  fine  large  plants, 
and  give  a  fair  crop,  even  the  first  year  after  plant- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  239 

ing.  Such  plants  tell  their  own  story,  and  the  de- 
mand continues.  In  a  short  time,  prices  come 
down ;  and  the  supply  increasing  beyond  the  de- 
mand, the  dealer  no  longer  thinks  it  worth  while 
to  give  this  room  expressly  for  the  growth  of 
plants :  the  beds  take  care  of  themselves,  hence 
bear  but  little,  and  the  plants  furnished  are  always 
weak  and  spindling.  These  require  the  second  year 
to  fruit;  perhaps,  in  the  interim,  new  kinds  are 
pressed  into  notice,  and  from  the  old  beds  it  be- 
comes more  and  more  difficult  to  obtain  strong 
plants,  until  the  cry  is  raised  that  the  once  cele- 
brated strawberry  has  run  its  race.  Now,  the  ques- 
tion is,  whether  the  same  kinds  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances, that  is,  strong  runners  from  the  strong 
old  plants,  in  good  soil  and  plenty  of  room,  will  not 
continue  to  be  productive. 

As  this  is  not  designed  to  be  a  treatise  on  the  art 
of  raising  strawberries,  so  I  shall  not  enlarge  upon 
the  subject.  Every  grower  seems  to  have  a  method 
of  his  own,  which  he  prefers  over  all  others.  There 
are  works  upon  the  subject,  containing  numerous 
facts  with  which  every  careful  beginner  should 
make  himself  familiar.  But  even  in  these  are  to  be 
discovered  the  most  extraordinary  collisions  of 
opinion — one,  for  instance,  recommending  generous 
manuring,  another  insisting  that  poor  ground  only 
should  be  used,  while  a  third  declares  that  frequent 
stirring  of  the  soil  will  of  itself  insure  abundant 
crops.  Amid  all  these  antagonisms  one  great  fact 
stands  prominently  forth,  that  the  strawberry  plant 


240  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

will  continue  to  live  and  produce  fruit  under  every 
possible  variety  of  treatment;  while  another  is 
equally  conspicuous,  that  the  better  the  treatment 
the  better  the  return.  It  would  be  presumptuous  in 
a  novice  like  me  to  undertake  to  reconcile  these 
unaccountable  discrepancies  of  the  great  strawberry 
doctors  of  the  country.  But  I  have  learned  enough 
to  be  satisfied  that  soil  has  much  to  do  in  the  suc- 
cessful cultivation  of  this  fruit.  A  variety  which 
flourishes  in  one  soil  will  be  almost  barren  in 
another.  Hence,  in  the  hands  of  one  grower  it 
proves  a  great  prize,  but  in  those  of  another  it  is 
comparatively  worthless.  Without  doubt  it  is  to 
this  cause  that  much  of  the  diversity  of  opinion  as 
to  certain  varieties,  as  well  as  to  the  mode  of 
culture,  is  to  be  attributed. 

Neither  will  I  undertake  to  decide  what  sorts, 
among  the  cloud  of  new  aspirants  for  public  patron- 
age which  are  annually  coming  into  notice,  are  to  be 
adopted  as  the  best.  One  is  in  danger  of  being 
confused  by  going  largely  into  the  cultivation  of  a 
multitude  of  varieties.  Having  secured  a  supply  of 
a  few  which  he  has  proved  to  be  congenial  with  his 
particular  soil,  he  should  adhere  to  them.  Small 
trials  of  the  new  varieties  may  be  safely  made,  but 
wholesale  substitutions  are  many  times  disastrous 
undertakings.  Having  found  out  such  as  suit  my 
soil,  I  am  content  to  keep  them.  The  Albany  seed- 
ling grows  upon  it  with  unsurpassed  luxuriance,  and 
I  shall  probably  never  abandon  it.  Meantime  I  have 
tried  the  Bartlett,  and  found  it  a  rampant  and  hardy 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  241 

grower,  bearing  the  most  abundant  crops  of  luscious 
fruit.  So  I  find  McAvoy's  Superior  to  be  a  beau- 
tiful berry,  and  a  vigorous  runner.  In  my  soil  the 
Triomphe  de  Gand  does  not  realize  the  extravagant 
promise  of  fruitfulness  which  heralded  its  introduc- 
tion to  public  notice.  My  neighbors  also  complain 
of  it  in  the  same  way.  But  for  my  own  family  con- 
sumption, I  prefer  it  to  any  strawberry  I  have  ever 
eaten.  The  flavor  is  rich  and  luscious  beyond  de- 
scription, while  the  crisp  seeds  crackle  between  your 
impatient  grinders  with  reverberations  loud  enough 
to  penetrate  the  utmost  depths  of  a  hungry  stomach. 
So  long  as  my  vines  continue  to  produce  only  one- 
fourth  as  much  as  others,  I  shall  continue  to  grow 
this  unsurpassable  variety.  It  sends  off  runners  in 
amazing  abundance.  When  grown  in  stools,  with 
the  runners  clipped  off  weekly,  it  bears  profusely  of 
enormous  fruit ;  and  this  method,  I  am  inclined  to 
believe,  is  the  true  corrective  of  all  unfriendly  ele- 
ments in  the  soil.  In  addition  to  these,  I  have,  in 
common  with  "  all  the  world  and  the  rest  of  man- 
kind," the  Tribune  strawberries,  now  growing  finely 
in  pots,  and  carefully  housed  for  crop  next  summer. 
Having  seen  them  in  fruit,  and  having  also  entire 
confidence  that  the  association  by  whom  they  are 
distributed  would  no  more  spread  abroad  a  worth- 
less article  than  they  would  circulate  a  vicious  sheet, 
so  I  regard  the  propagation  of  these  three  plants 
as  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  straw- 
berry culture. 

I  have  very  little  doubt  that  there  are   specific 
i6 


242  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

manures  for  the  strawberry,  and  one  of  them  will 
probably  be  found  in  Baugh's  Rawbone  Superphos- 
phate of  Lime.  This  article  is  manufactured  in 
Philadelphia,  and  is  made  of  raw,  unburnt  bones, 
which  in  their  raw  state  contain  one-third  of  animal 
matter,  and  combines  ammonia  and  phosphoric  acid 
in  the  proper  proportions  for  stimulating  and  nour- 
ishing vegetable  growth.  I  have  used  it  as  freely  as 
I  could  afford  to,  on  turnips,  celery,  and  strawberries. 
On  the  two  former  its  effects  was  very  decidedly 
favorable.  My  celery  uniformly  exceeds  that  of  my 
neighbors,  both  in  size,  crispness,  and  flavor,  and 
consequently  commands  a  higher  price.  But  its 
effect  on  strawberries  has  been  perfectly  marvellous. 
On  some  of  them  the  superphosphate  was  scattered 
on  both  sides  of  the  row,  whence,  by  repeated  hoeing 
and  raking,  with  the  aid  of  sundry  rains,  its  finer 
particles  found  their  way  to  the  roots.  The  result 
has  been  a  robust  growth  of  the  plants,  such  as 
cannot  be  seen  on  any  other  part  of  my  ground. 
They  hold  up  their  heads,  their  leaves  and  fruit- 
stalks  some  inches  higher  than  any  others,  while  their 
whole  appearance  indicates  that  they  have  been  fed 
with  a  more  congenial  fertilizer  than  usual.  Many 
of  them  have  put  forth  double  crowns,  showing  that 
they  are  prepared  to  furnish  twice  the  ordinary 
quantity  of  fruit.  So  impressed  am  I  with  the  su- 
perior value  of  this  fertilizer,  that  I  have,  this  au- 
tumn of  1863,  manured  as  many  rows  as  I  could,  and. 
shall  hereafter  substitute  it  wholly  for  all  barnyard 
manure.    It  is  applied  with  the  utmost  facility,  it 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  243 

contains  the  seeds  of  no  pestiferous  weeds,  and  its 
virtues  are  so  highly  concentrated  that  a  small 
amount  manures  a  large  surface.  It  is  quite  pos- 
sible that  it  may  not  do  so  well  on  some  soils  as 
others,  but  no  farmer  can  be  sure  of  this  until  he 
has  made  the  trial.  Hence,  as  that  can  be  made 
with  a  single  bag,  the  sooner  it  is  undertaken  the 
better  it  will  be  for  those  to  whose  soil  it  may  be 
found  congenial. 

Thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  the  common  wild 
blackberry  are  annually  taken  to  the  cities  and  sold. 
For  these  berries  the  price  has,  within  a  few  years, 
actually  risen  one-half.  The  traffic  in  them  on  some 
railroads  is  immense,  especially  on  those  leading  into 
Philadelphia  from  Delaware.  Millions  of  quarts  are 
annually  sold  in  New  York  and  Cincinnati.  A  single 
township  in  New  Jersey  sells  to  the  amount  of  $2,000 
and  one  county  in  Indiana  to  that  of  $10,000.  The 
huckleberry  trade  of  New  Jersey  is  also  very  large. 
A  single  buyer  in  Monmouth  county  purchases  sixty 
bushels  daily  during  the  picking  season.  All  these 
wild  berries  are  gathered  by  women  and  children 
who,  without  these  crops,  would  find  no  other  em- 
ployment. But  they  grow  in  every  wood  and  swamp, 
in  every  neglected  headland,  while  upon  the  old 
fields  they  enter  into  full  possession.  As  they  cost 
nothing  but  the  labor  of  gathering  them,  so  they  are 
the  bountiful  means  of  drawing  thousands  of  dollars 
into  the  pockets  of  the  industrious  poor.  The  cran- 
berry swamps  of  New  Jersey  are  as  celebrated  for 
the  abundance  of  their  products  as  their  owners  have 


244  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

been  for  permitting  them  to  become  the  prey  of  all 
who  choose  to  strip  them  of  their  fruit. 

Thus  the  demand  for  even  the  wild  berries  con- 
tinues to  enlarge.  Hence  there  must  be  sure  sale 
for  those  of  a  superior  quality.  In  fact,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  fruit  is  yet  in  a  state  of  infancy  ;  it  is  just 
beginning  to  assume  the  character  its  merits  deserve. 
Probably  more  trees  have  been  raised,  more  orchards 
planted,  within  the  past  ten  or  twelve  years  than  in 
all  previous  time.  Within  a  few  years  past  it  has 
received  an  unusual  degree  of  attention.  Planta- 
tions of  all  sorts,  orchards,  gardens,  and  nurseries, 
have  increased  in  number  and  extent  to  a  degree 
quite  unprecedented ;  not  in  one  section  or  locality, 
but  from  the  extreme  north  to  the  southern  limits 
of  the  fruit-growing  region.  Horticultural  societies 
have  been  organized  in  all  parts ;  while  exhibitions, 
and  National,  State,  and  local  Conventions  of  fruit- 
growers have  been  held  to  discuss  the  merits  of 
fruits,  and  other  kindred  topics,  until  it  has  become 
the  desire  of  almost  every  man,  whether  he  live  in 
town  or  country,  to  enjoy  fine  fruits,  to  provide 
them  for  his  family,  and,  if  possible,  to  cultivate  the 
trees  in  his  own  garden  with  his  own  hands. 

There  are  now  single  nurseries  in  this  country 
where  a  million  fruit-trees  are  advertised  for  sale. 
If  every  hundred-acre  farm  were  to  receive  fifty 
trees,  all  the  nurseries  would  be  swept  bare  in  a 
single  year.  The  States  east  of,  and  contiguous  to, 
the  Mississippi  river,  would  require  ten  thousand 
acres  of  land  for  three  hundred  years,  to  plant  ten 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  245 

acres  of  fruit-trees  on  every  hundred-acre  farm  in 
this  portion  of  the  Union :  and  this  estimate  is  based 
on  the  supposition  that  all  the  trees  planted  do  well, 
and  flourish.  If  only  a  fifth  of  them  perish,  then 
two  thousand  years  would  be  required,  at  the  present 
rate  of  supply,  to  furnish  the  above-named  quantity 
of  orchard  for  every  farm.  Some  nurseries  already 
cover  300  to  500  acres,  but  even  these  go  but  a  short 
way  in  supplying  the  immense  demand  for  fruit- 
trees.  How  absurd,  then,  in  the  face  of  such  an 
array  of  facts  as  this,  the  idea  that  our  markets  are 
to  be  surfeited  with  fruit !  Thousands  of  acres  of 
peach-trees,  bending  under  their  heavy  crops,  are 
still  needed  for  the  consumption  of  but  one  city; 
and  broad  fifty-acre  fields  reddened  with  enormous 
products,  may  yet  send  with  profit  hundreds  of  bush- 
els of  strawberries  daily  into  the  other.  If,  instead 
of  keeping  three  days,  sorts  were  now  added  that 
would  keep  three  months,  many  times  the  amount 
would  be  needed.  But  the  market  would  not  be 
confined  to  large  cities.  Railroads  and  steamboats 
would  open  new  channels  of  distribution  throughout 
the  country  for  increased  supplies.  Nor  would  the 
business  stop  here.  Large  portions  of  the  Eastern 
Continent  would  gladly  become  purchasers  as  soon 
as  sufficient  quantities  should  create  facilities  for  a 
reasonable  supply.  Our  best  apples  are  eagerly 
bought  in  London  and  Liverpool,  where  $9  per 
barrel  is  not  an  unusual  price  for  the  best  Newtown 
pippins.  And,  by  being  packed  in  ice,  pears  gath- 
ered early   in  autumn  have  been  safely   sent  to 


246  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

Jamaica,  and  strawberries  to  Barbadoes.  The  Bald- 
win apple  has  been  furnished  in  good  condition  in 
the  East  Indies  two  months  after  it  is  entirely  gone 
in  Boston.  The  world  has  never  yet  been  surfeited 
with  fruit. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  247 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

GENTLEMAN-FARMING ESTABLISHING    A   HOME. 

I  AM  sure  I  ought  not  to  be  considered  as  belong- 
ing to  the  class  of  gentlemen  farmers.  They  go  into 
the  country  because  they  are  rich — I  went  because 
I  was  poor.  Yet  they  have  done  good  service  to 
the  public  in  various  ways.  They  have  imported, 
naturalized,  and  propagated  valuable  vegetables  and 
fruits.  They  have  patronized  costly  labor-saving 
farm  machines  and  agricultural  implements,  they 
have  made  expensive  agricultural  experiments,  in 
the  benefits  of  which  all  cultivators  have  participated. 
Especially  has  this  been  so  in  relation  to  fertilizers, 
foreign  and  domestic,  natural  and  artificial.  They 
have  improved  the  breed  of  domestic  cattle,  and  im- 
ported the  best  blood  from  abroad,  including  all  the 
fine-wooUed  sheep.  They  have  shown  us  how  large 
crops  can  be  grown,  and  have  otherwise  and  in  vari- 
ous ways  radiated  good  influences  around  them,  and 
contributed  science,  dignity,  and  encouragement  to 
the  farmer's  vocation. 

No  one  can  justly  deny  the  value  of  their  services. 
Yet  it  is  not  by  merely  cultivating  new  trees  and 
plants,  and  exhibiting  large  vegetables,  gigantic 
apples  or  pears,  corpulative  pumpkins,  and  enormous 
general  crops,  that  agriculture  is  to  be  substantially 
improved  and  made  profitable  to  the  farmer  who  de- 


248  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

pends  upon  it  for  a  living.  Something  more  than 
prodigious  crops  or  beautiful  fruit  is  necessary  for 
him.  He  wants  to  know  the  cost  of  them — to  see 
the  balance-sheet  in  which,  while  credit  is  given  for 
the  sales  of  all  these  fine  products,  deductions  are 
made  for  the  expenditures  rendered  necessary  to 
secure  them.  A  tree  may  produce  splendid  fruit, 
but  the  pears  may  be  few,  the  apples  may  be  very 
perishable,  and  the  choice  peaches  and  other  trees 
may  bear  only  every  other  year,  or  only  once  in 
three  or  four  perhaps,  and  then  die  before  another 
crop.  The  accounts  must  therefore  comprehend 
several  years  before  the  real  profits  of  farming  can 
be  truly  ascertained. 

Herein  it  is  that  gentleman-farming  is  most  com- 
monly in  fault.  The  pecuniary  results  are  never 
either  accurately  known  and  stated,  or  are  neglected, 
because  of  little  consequence  to  the  proprietor. 
When  they  happen  to  be  ascertained  and  divulged, 
they  are  often  discovered  to  be  far  from  remunera- 
tive. This  disregard  of  cost  has  brought  this  genteel 
agriculture,  as  it  may  be  called,  into  disrepute. 
Common  people  turn  away  from  it,  as  inapplicable 
to  the  condition  of  their  purses.  They  think  they 
cannot  afford  it ;  and  doubtless  they  are  really  unable 
to  indulge  in  this  species  of  agricultural  luxury. 

It  may  thus  be  assumed  that  this  kind  of  agricul- 
ture, so  far  from  being  serviceable  to  many  working 
farmers,  is  really  injurious  to  them.  They  confound 
this  uncalculating,  heedless  practice  with  book-farm- 
ing.    They  believe  the  conduct  of  their   wealthy 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  249 

neighbors,  who  follow  farming  as  an  amusement, 
merely  relying  on  their  city  business  for  their  in- 
comes, to  be  regulated  by  the  instructions  in  the 
agricultural  publications  of  the  day.  But  I  fear 
that  this  description  of  literature  does  not  occupy 
them  much.  Moreover,  it  is  wisely  cautious  in  its 
recommendations,  as  those  must  be  who  have  wit- 
nessed the  futility  of  so  many  speculations  and  ex- 
periments. High  farming  is  not  bottomed  on  book- 
learning,  if  it  fails  to  make  suitable  deductions  for 
the  cost  of  every  operation.  In  truth,  gentleman- 
farming  is  too  rarely  founded  on  anything  but  a 
full  purse,  and  an  ambition  to  outshine  all  rivals  at 
a  country  fair,  without  much  regard  to  expense.  As 
far  as  this  is  true,  such  agriculture  is  neither  bene- 
ficial in  a  pecuniary  view,  either  to  themselves  or 
to  the  working  farmer.  The  latter  finds  little  in 
such  cultivation  that  he  can  copy,  because  the  essen- 
tial element  of  expense  is  left  out  of  the  computation. 
But  book-farming  ought  not  to  fall  under  censure 
because  genteel  farming  happens  not  to  be  lucrative. 
For  the  man  who  can  afford  to  buy  almost  every- 
thing he  needs,  and  sell  very  little  that  he  raises, 
farming  is  undoubtedly  a  delightful  amusement. 
For  the  man  who  can  afford  to  sell  almost  every- 
thing he  raises,  and  whose  wants  are  moderate  as 
mine,  farming  is  a  lucrative  employment.  To  the 
oft  paraded  statistics  of  premium  reports  I  cannot 
answer  with  a  sneer.  The  question  is  simply  this — 
whether  farming,  upon  the  whole,  is  a  profession 
warranting  a  certain  degree  of  scientific  culture,  and 


250  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

giving  room  for  its  display — whether  it  is  worthy 
to  enlist  the  energies  and  ambition  of  a  young  man 
who  has  a  good  life  to  live,  and  a  career  to  make  ? 
This  question  may  be  answered  by  looking  almost 
anywhere  around  us.  No  doubt  a  farmer  should 
have  some  practical  familiarity  with  those  facts, 
whether  of  science  or  experiment,  which  have  a  bear- 
ing on  his  trade.  It  would  be  well  for  him  to  under- 
stand chemistry  in  its  application  to  farming,  yet  he 
should  also  assiduously  gather  up  those  unexplained 
facts  for  which  even  chemistry  cannot  account. 

It  would  be  well  for  him  to  know  why  the  johns- 
wort,  the  wild  carrot,  and  the  Canada  thistle  thrive 
so  heriocally  in  spite  of  bad  treatment,  where  are 
their  weak  points,  where  the  heel  of  these  Greeks, 
what  degree  of  heat  in  the  compost  pile  will  destroy 
the  germinating  power  of  seeds,  and  whether  the 
law  of  one  seed  is  the  law  of  another  seed.  He 
should  be  a  man  of  business  and  of  some  means, 
for  he  has  his  system  to  decide  upon,  his  labor  to 
engage  and  direct,  his  stock  and  implements  to  buy, 
and  then  his  crops  to  sell,  his  bills  to  pay,  and  his 
books  to  balance.  Superphosphates  certified  to  by 
one  set  of  gentlemen-farmers,  and  the  most  brilliant 
eulogies  on  American  farmers,  delivered  by  another 
set,  will  not  help  him  much  at  these  things.  Money 
may :  indeed  every  farmer  ought  to  have  a  little  of 
this  commodity  to  start  him  fairly. 

In  almost  all  locations  there  are  difficulties  to 
encounter.  One  of  these  is  that  of  securing  efficient 
laborers.     American  laborers  of  the  right  sort  are 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  251 

rarely  to  be  found.  American  blood  is  fast,  and 
fast  blood  is  impatient  with  a  hoe  among  carrots. 
It  is  well  enough  that  blood  is  so  fast,  and  hopes  so 
tall.  These  tell  grandly  in  certain  directions,  but 
they  are  not  available  for  working  over  a  heap  of 
compost.  Farm  labor,  to  be  effective,  must  have 
the  personal  oversight  of  the  master.  There  is 
breadth  and  significance  in  the  old  saying  of  Palla- 
dius,  "  If  you  would  push  a  crop  through,  look  after 
it  yourself."  Another  difficulty  is  the  lack  of  de- 
sirable market  facilities.  The  middleman  stands 
between  the  producer  and  the  consumer,  and  monop- 
olizes much  of  the  profit.  In  this  respect  farmers 
might  help  each  other  by  judicious  combination, 
but  they  lack  coherency  as  a  class.  They  have  too 
little  esprit  du  corps.  There  is  too  much  of  isola- 
tion, and  isolation  will  inevitably  prey  upon  the 
farmer's  purse.  Then  Young  America  has  a  grow- 
ing aversion  to  manual  labor.  He  is  a  gentleman ; 
and  shall  a  gentleman  take  off  his  coat  ?  He  is  vain 
of  his  culture,  and  is  mortified  to  find  that  ordinary 
sagacity  and  a  rude  energy  surpass  him  in  success. 
He  learns  with  pain  that  knowledge  is  not  confined 
to  books,  and  that  the  shrewdness  which  can  mould 
raw  laborers  into  effective  helps,  tells  more  upon 
the  year's  profits  than  the  theories  of  Liebig,  or  the 
experiments  of  Lawes. 

But  the  difficulties  thus  referred  to  are  many  of 
them  gradually  disappearing.  The  labor  question, 
especially,  has  been  wonderfully  simplified  by  the 
introduction  of  new  and  effective  implements,  which 


252  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

enable  the  farmer  to  reduce  the  number  of  his  hands. 
But  since  they  do  exist, — and  I  think  my  representa- 
tions, though  they  may  seem  to  show  tlie  shady  side 
of  the  business,  will  be  sustained  by  the  testimony  of 
practical  men, — it  is  best  to  meet  the  whole  truth  in 
this  matter,  whatever  ugly  faces  it  may  wear.  No 
man  conquers  a  difficulty  until  he  sees  it  plainly. 
Oaks  are  fine  things,  and  rivers  are  fine  things  ;  and 
so  are  sunsets,  and  morning-glories,  and  new-mown 
hay,  and  fresh  curds,  and  milch  cows.  But,  after 
all,  a  farm,  and  farming,  do  not  absorb  all  the 
romance  of  life,  or  all  its  stateliest  heroics.  There  is 
width,  and  beauty,  and  independence  indeed ;  but 
there  is  also  sweat,  and  anxiety  about  the  weather, 
the  crops,  and  the  markets,  with  horny  hands,  and 
sometimes  a  good  deal  of  hay-dust  in  the  hair.  But 
if  a  man,  as  has  been  said,  is  thoroughly  in  earnest ; 
if  he  have  the  sagacity  to  see  all  over  his  farm,  to 
systematize  his  labor,  to  carry  out  his  plans  punctu- 
ally and  thoroughly  ;  if  he  is  not  above  economics, 
nor  heedless  of  the  teachings  of  science,  nor  unob- 
servant of  progress  otherwise,  nor  neglectful  of  the 
multitude  of  agricultural  lights  which  shine  every- 
where around  him  ;  let  him  work,  and  he  will  have 
his  reward.  But  work  as  he  may,  it  will  be  impos- 
sible to  toil  harder  than  thousands  in  the  cities  ;  who, 
with  all  their  toil  of  head  and  hands,  end  life  as  pov- 
erty-stricken as  when  they  began. 

Somehow  it  happens,  that  almost  every  man  who 
has  been  city-bred  feels  at  times  a  strong  desire  to 
settle  down  among  the  trees  and  green  fields,  from 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  253 

a  vague  and  undefined  belief  that  the  country  is  the 
scene  where  human  life  attains  its  highest  develop- 
ment. He  cherishes  a  hope,  though  perhaps  a  faint 
one,  that  he  may  yet  possess  a  country  home,  where 
he  may  tranquilly  pass  his  latter  years,  far  away 
from  city  tumults  and  trials.  This  hope  is  founded 
on  the  instinctive  desire  there  is  in  human  nature  to 
possess  some  portion  of  the  earth's  surface.  I  know 
that  one  looks  with  indescribable  interest  at  an  acre 
of  ground  which  is  his  own.  I  am  sure  that  there 
is  something  remarkable  about  my  trees.  I  have  a 
sense  of  property  in  every  sunset  over  my  own  hills, 
and  there  is  perpetual  pleasure  in  the  sight  of  the 
glowing  landscape  at  my  own  door.  I  have  found 
Ten  Acres  Enough ;  and  I  know  well  what  pleas- 
ures, interests,  and  compensations  are  to  be  found 
in  the  little  affairs  of  that  limited  tract.  The  win- 
dows of  the  snug  library,  into  which  I  retire  in  win- 
ter, look  out  across  the  garden  on  the  blank  gable  of 
my  barn.  When  I  came  here,  it  was  rough  and 
unsightly.  But  now  that  homely  gable  is  a  blank 
no  longer.  Every  inch  is  clustered  over  with  climb- 
ing roses,  honeysuckles,  and  variegated  ivy,  in  whose 
tangled  mass  of  vine  and  foliage  the  song-birds  build 
in  summer,  while  to  the  same  annual  granary  the 
snowbirds  come  in  flocks  to  gather  seeds  in  winter. 
Though  I  could  not  aspire  to  being  a  gentleman - 
farmer,  seeing  that  I  came  to  make  my  fortune,  not 
to  spend  one,  yet  I  have  sought  to  make  farming  a 
sort  of  social  science,  in  which  not  only  the  head  and 
hands  could  be  employed,  but  the  sympathies  of  the 


254  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

heart  enlarged  and  elevated.    In  short,  to  establish 
a  home  for  the  family. 

I  desire  no  association  with  the  man  or  boy  who 
would  wantonly  kill  the  birds  that  sing  so  cheerfully 
around  our  dwellings  and  our  farms :  he  is  fitted 
for  treason  and  murder.  Who  among  us  does  not, 
with  the  freshness  of  early  morning,  call  up  the 
memory  of  the  garden  of  his  infancy  and  childhood ; 
the  robin's  nest  in  the  old  cherry-tree,  and  the  nest 
of  young  chirping  birds  in  the  currant-bush ;  the 
flowers  planted  by  his  mother,  and  nurtured  by  his 
sisters?  In  all  our  wanderings,  the  memory  of 
childhood's  birds  and  flowers  is  associated  with  that 
of  mother,  sister,  and  our  early  home.  As  you 
would  have  your  children  intelligent,  virtuous,  and 
happy,  and  their  memory,  in  after-life,  of  early  home 
a  pleasant  or  repulsive  one,  so  make  your  farms  and 
your  children's  home  as  your  business  of  life,  then 
adorn  that  business  throughout.  If  you  would  in- 
spire your  own  children  and  your  neighbors  with 
the  nobleness  of  your  business,  then  draw  about 
you  such  an  array  of  beauty  as  no  one  but  the 
cultivator  of  the  soil  can  collect.  Let  every  foot  of 
your  farm  show  the  touch  of  refinement.  While 
you  are  arranging  your  fields  for  convenient  and 
successful  cropping,  let  it  be  done  with  order  and 
neatness.  While  building  the  fence,  let  it  be  beautiful 
as  well  as  substantial.  While  arranging  your  vege- 
table-gardens and  orchards  do  not  overlook  geometri- 
cal regularity.  Do  not,  on  any  account,  omit  the  plant- 
ing of  flowers  and  the  various  kinds  of  fruit-trees. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  255 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

UNSUCCESSFUL     MEN — REBELLION     NOT      EUINOUS     TO 
NORTHERN   AGRICULTURE. 

Looking  back  upon  the  incidents  of  my  city  life, 
I  confess  that  increasing  years  bring  with  them  an 
increasing  respect  for  those  who  do  not  succeed  in 
life,  as  these  words  are  commonly  used.  Heaven 
has  been  said  to  be  a  place  for  those  who  have  not 
succeeded  upon  earth ;  and  it  is  surely  true  that 
celestial  graces  do  not  best  thrive  and  bloom  in  the 
hot  blaze  of  worldly  prosperity.  lU  success  some- 
times arises  from  superabundance  of  qualities  in 
themselves  good,  from  a  conscience  too  sensitive,  a 
taste  too  fastidious,  a  self-forgetfulness  too  romantic, 
a  modesty  too  retiring,  I  will  not  go  so  far  as  to 
say,  with  a  living  poet,  that 

*'  The  world  knows  nothing  of  its  greatest  men  ; " 

but  there  are  forms  of  greatness,  or  at  least  excel- 
lence, that  die  and  make  no  sign ;  there  are  martyrs 
who  miss  the  palm,  but  not  the  stake ;  there  are 
heroes  without  the  laurel,  and  conquerors  without 
the  triumph. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  a  class  of  men 
who  never  succeed  in  business.     With  a  fair  amount 


256  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

of  earnest  industry,  they  are  still  unable  to  get  on. 
Bad  luck  seems  to  be  their  fate,  and  they  are  perpet- 
ually railing  at  fortune.  In  this  they  are  not  with- 
out sympathy.  There  are  hundreds  of  simple,  good- 
hearted  people,  who  regard  them  as  ill-starred 
mortals,  against  whom  an  inscrutable  destiny  had 
set  itself,  and  who  are  always  ready  to  pity  their 
mischances  and  help  them  in  their  last  extremity. 
But  is  not  that  a  very  foolish  philosophy  which  re- 
fers the  misfortunes  or  the  prosperity  of  individuals 
to  preternatural  causes,  or  even  natural  causes  en- 
tirely foreign  to  the  persons  ?  Some  people,  it  is 
true,  owe  a  great  deal  to  accident.  Much  of  their 
success  is  due  to  circumstances  not  of  their  own 
making.  So  it  is  with  others  who  suffer  disappoint- 
ment or  disaster.  But  in  those  cases  in  which  fail- 
ure or  success  is  certainly  dependent  on  no  extrane- 
ous agencies,  but  on  one's  own  means  and  energies, 
I  am  confident  that  no  little  of  the  complaint  of  our 
hard  lot  is  misdirected,  and  that  the  charity  which 
helps  us  out  of  our  successive  difficulties  is  mis- 
placed. In  plain  words,  our  failures  in  this  or  that 
thing  are  often  attributable  to  the  fact  that  we  en- 
gage in  enterprises  beyond  our  power.  The  world 
is  filled  with  examples  of  this  truth.  We  see  hun- 
dreds of  men  in  all  professions  and  callings  who 
never  achieve  even  a  decent  living.  The  bar  of 
every  city  is  crowded  with  them.  They  swell  the 
ranks  of  our  physicians  and  theologians,  and  swarm 
in  the  walks  of  science  and  literature ;  in  short, 
they  run  against  and  elbow  you  everywhere.     They 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  257 

are  the  unfortunate  people  who  have  mistaken  their 
mission.  They  are  always  attempting  tasks  which 
they  have  not  the  first  qualification  to  perform. 
Their  ambition  is  forever  outrunning  their  capa- 
bilities. They  fancy  that  to  call  themselves  law- 
yers, doctors,  divines,  or  the  like,  is  to  be  what  they 
are  styled.  Their  signs  are  stuck  thickly  on  doors 
and  shutters  all  over  the  city,  but  they  are  without 
honor  or  employment.  Of  course  they  never  pros- 
per. They  have  no  fitness  for  their  vocation,  no 
practical  skill,  no  natural  talent,  and  hence  they 
fail. 

But  both  they  and  society  are  losers  by  this. 
There  is  so  much  real  ability  for  something  useful 
that  is  thus  sunk  and  wasted.  The  community  is 
encumbered  with  a  host  of  very  incompetent  bar- 
risters, preachers,  physicians,  writers,  merchants, 
and  so  forth,  and  is  deprived  of  as  many  good  me- 
chanics, and  farmers,  and  laborers.  What  a  pity  it 
is  that  men  will  not  be  content  to  choose  their  pur- 
suits according  to  their  abilities.  To  encourage 
them  to  persist  in  any  business  for  which  they  arc 
not  suited,  and  in  which  they  never  can  obtain  for- 
tune or  credit,  is  really  unkind.  It  would  be  nmch 
less  cruel  to  let  them  early  feel  the  inconveniences 
of  foltowing  a  calling  for  which  they  are  unfit,  and 
go  into  one  for  which  nature  may  have  given  them 
the  requisite  aptitude  and  powers. 

But,  in  the  ordering  of  a  good  Providence,  failure 
in  one  pursuit  does  not  imply  failure  in  the  next. 
I  know  and  have  proved  this.  The  motto  should 
17 


258  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

be  to  keep  moving,  to  try  it  again.  Try  it  a  hun- 
dred times,  if  you  do  not  earlier  succeed,  and  all  the 
while  be  studying  to  see  if  you  have  not  failed 
through  some  negligence  and  oversight  of  your  own. 
Do  not  throw  down  your  oars  and  drift  stern  fore- 
most, because  the  tide  happens  to  be  against  you. 
The  tide  does  not  always  run  the  same  way.  Never 
anchor  because  the  wind  does  not  happen  to  be  fair. 
Beat  to  windward,  and  gain  all  you  can  until  it 
changes.  If  you  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  wheel, 
hold  on — ^never  think  of  letting  go.  Let  it  move 
which  way  it  will,  you  are  sure  to  go  up. 

If  in  debt,  do  not  let  time  wear  off  the  edge  of  the 
obligation.  Economize,  work  harder,  spend  less, 
and  hurry  out.  If  misfortune  should  overtake  you, 
do  not  sit  down  and  mope,  and  let  her  walk  over 
you.  Put  on  more  steam,  drive  ahead,  and  get  out 
of  the  way.  If  you  meet  obstacles  in  your  path, 
climb  over,  dig  under,  or  go  around  them — never 
turn  back.  If  the  day  be  stormy,  you  cannot  mend 
matters  by  whining  and  complaining.  Be  good- 
natured,  take  it  easy,  for  assuredly  the  sun  will 
shine  to-morrow. 

If  you  lose  money  on  a  promising  speculation, 
never  think  of  collecting  a  coroner's  inquest  about 
your  dead  body.  Do  not  put  on  a  long  face  because 
money  is  not  so  plentiful  as  usual — it  will  not  add  a 
single  dollar  to  the  circulating  medium.  Preserve 
your  good-humor,  for  there  is  more  health  in  a  single 
hearty  laugh  than  in  a  dozen  glasses  of  rum.  Be 
happy,  and  impart  happiness  to  others.     Look  aloft. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  259 

and  trust  in  God.  Be  prudent  as  you  please,  but  do 
not  bleach  out  your  hair,  and  pucker  your  face  into 
wrinkles  ten  years  ahead  of  time,  by  a  self-inflicted 
fit  of  the  dismals. 

I  went  into  the  country  with  a  determination  to 
succeed.  As  others  had  there  succeeded,  I  could  not 
be  induced  to  believe  that  failure  in  so  simple  an  en- 
terprise could  overtake  me,  as  I  felt  myself  quite  as 
competent  as  they.  A  resolute  will  overcomes  all 
difficulties.  It  was  one  of  the  leading  characteristics 
of  Napoleon  to  regard  nothing  as  impossible.  His 
astonishing  successes  are  to  be  attributed  to  his  in- 
domitable vidll,  scarcely  less  than  to  his  vast  military 
genius.  Wellington  was  distinguished  for  a  similar 
peculiarity.  The  entire  Peninsular  campaign  was, 
indeed,  but  one  long  display  of  an  iron  will,  resolute 
to  conquer  difficulties  by  wearing  them  out.  Alex- 
ander the  Great  was  quite  as  striking  an  example  of 
what  a  powerful  will  can  effect.  His  stubborn  de- 
termination to  subdue  the  Persians ;  his  perseverance 
in  the  crisis  of  battle,  and  the  emulation  to  which  he 
thus  stimulated  his  officers  and  men,  did  more  for 
his  wonderful  career  of  victory  than  even  his  great 
strategic  abilities.  In  the  life  and  death  struggle  be- 
tween England  and  France,  during  the  first  fifteen 
years  of  this  century,  it  was  the  stubborn  will  of  the 
former  which  carried  the  day ;  for  though  Napoleon 
defeated  the  British  coalitions  again  and  again,  yet 
new  ones  were  as  constantly  formed,  until  at  last 
the  French  people,  if  not  their  emperor,  were  com- 
pletely worn  out.    The  battle  of  Waterloo,  which  was 


260  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

the  climax  of  this  tremendous  struggle,  was  also  an 
illustration  of  the  sustained  energy,  the  superior  will 
of  the  British.  In  that  awful  struggle,  French  im- 
petuosity proved  too  weak  for  English  resolution. 
"  We  will  see  who  can  pound  the  longest,"  said 
Wellington ;  and  as  the  British  did,  they  won  the 
battle. 

It  is  not  only  in  military  chieftains  that  a  strong 
will  is  a  jewel  of  great  price.  Nations  and  individ- 
uals experience  the  advantages  of  a  resolute  will ; 
and  this  alike  in  large  and  small  undertakings.  It 
was  the  determined  will  of  our  forefathers  to  which, 
with  divine  help,  we  are  principally  indebted  for  our 
freedom.  For  the  first  few  years  after  the  declara- 
tion of  independence,  we  lost  most  of  the  battles 
that  were  fought.  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
were  successively  captured  by  the  foe ;  South  Caro- 
lina fell ;  New  Jersey  was  practically  reannexed  to 
England ;  almost  everything  went  against  us.  Had 
the  American  people  been  feeble  and  hesitating,  all 
would  have  been  lost.  But  they  resolved  to  conquer 
or  die.  Though  their  cities  were  taken,  their  fields 
ravaged,  and  their  captured  soldiers  incarcerated 
in  hideous  prison-ships,  they  still  maintained  the 
struggle,  making  the  pilgrimage  of  freedom  with 
naked  feet,  that  bled  at  every  step.  Had  our  fathers 
been  incapable  of  Valley  Forge,  had  they  shrunk 
from  the  storm-beaten  march  on  Trenton,  we  should 
never  have  been  an  independent  nation.  There  are 
people  in  the  Old  World,  full  of  genius  and  enthusi- 
asm for  liberty,  who  yet  cannot  achieve  freedom,  prin- 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  261 

cipally,  perhaps,  because  they  lack  the  indomitable 
will  to  walk  the  bloody  pilgrimage.  The  outbreak 
of  the  slaveholder's  rebellion  covered  the  Union 
armies  with  defeat  at  numerous  points,  because  re- 
bellions are  always  successful  at  the  beginning.  But 
the  determined  will  to  crush  out  treason  will  eventu- 
ally overwhelm  and  master  it. 

A  strong  will  is  as  necessary  to  the  individual  as 
to  the  nation.  Even  intellect  is  secondary  in  im- 
portance to  will.  A  vacillating  man,  no  matter 
what  his  abilities,  is  invariably  pushed  aside,  in  the 
race  of  life,  by  the  man  of  determination.  It  is  he 
who  resolves  to  succeed,  who  begins  resolutely  again 
at  every  fresh  rebuff,  that  reaches  the  goal.  The 
shores  of  fortune  are  covered  with  the  stranded 
wrecks  of  business  men  who  have  wasted  energy, 
and  therefore  courage  and  faith,  and  have  perished 
in  sight  of  more  resolute  but  less  capable  adventurers, 
who  succeeded  in  making  port.  In  fact,  talent  with- 
out will  is  like  steam  dissipating  itself  in  the  atmos- 
phere ;  while  abilities  controlled  by  energy  are  the 
same  steam  brought  under  subjection  as  a  motive 
power.  Or  will  is  the  rudder  that  steers  the  ship, 
which,  whether  a  fast> sailing  clipper  or  a  slow  river- 
barge,  is  worthless  without  it.  Talent,  again,  is  but 
the  sail ;  will  is  what  drives  it.  The  man  without  a 
will  is  the  puppet  and  bubble  of  others  by  turns. 
The  man  with  a  will  is  the  one  that  pulls  the  strings 
and  catches  the  dupes.  Young  man,  starting  out  in 
life,  have  a  will  of  your  own.  If  you  do  not,  you 
will  drag  along,  the  victim  of  perpetual  embarrass- 


262  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

ment,  only  to  end  in  utter  ruin.     If  you  do,  you  will 
succeed,  even  though  your  abilities  be  moderate. 

All  this  may  be  viewed  as  a  digression.  But  it 
is  not  so.  I  do  not  write  for  the  rich  and  prosperous, 
but  for  those  who  have  been  unsuccessful.  They  need 
encouragement  and  bracing  up.  If  their  experience 
has  been  disastrous,  that  of  others,  who  have  suc- 
ceeded, should  be  set  before  them.  Some  fifty  years 
ago  there  lived  in  this  city  an  old  man,  who  by 
dint  of  tact,  with  the  aid  of  keen  perceptive  facul- 
ties, had  acquired  much  celebrity  with  a  large  class 
of  his  neighbors  as  something  between  a  prophet 
and  a  fortune-teller.  He  did  not,  however,  assume 
the  character  either  of  a  religious  fanatic  or  of  a 
crafty  disciple  of  Faustus.  But  he  was  well  read 
in  the  Scriptures ;  he  had  a  good  share  of  common 
sense,  and  a  voluble  tongue,  and  by  degrees  he  at- 
tained a  fame  for  wise  sayings  and  for  capability  to 
advise,  which  he  owed  more  to  his  natural  talents 
and  a  loquacious  disposition  than  to  any  less  worthy 
means.  Being  advanced  in  years,  and  his  lot  humble, 
he  turned  the  good  opinion  formed  of  him  to  the 
account  of  his  livelihood,  by  discussing  questions  put 
to  him  by  his  visitors  in  a  frank  and  manly  spirit ;  and 
without  ever  demanding  recompense,  he  was  ready 
to  receive  any  gratuity  that  was  offered  by  them  on 
their  departure.  Moreover,  his  advice  was  always, 
if  not  valuable,  at  least  good  in  kind ;  and  few  quitted 
his  humble  dwelling  without  leaving  their  good 
wishes  in  a  substantial  shape,  or  without  having 
also  formed  a  favorable  opinion  of  their  mentor. 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  263 

At  length,  so  extensive  did  this  good  man's  fame 
become,  that  many  from  curiosity  alone  were  induced 
to  visit  him,  and  hear  his  wise  sayings.  His  counsel 
was  usually  couched  in  short  and  terse  sentences ; 
frequently  in  proverbs,  and  often  in  the  language  of 
the  Bible,  to  which  he  would  sometimes  refer  his 
inquirers  for  passages  which  he  said  would  be  found 
applicable  to  their  case.  As  these  passages  were 
usually  selected  from  the  Proverbs,  and  other  books 
of  somewhat  similar  description,  which  contained 
some  rule  of  morals,  or  which  advocated  the  Chris- 
tian duties,  he  seldom  failed  to  be  right.  Among, 
others  who  were  led  by  curiosity  to  this  wise  man, 
was  a  young  farmer,  then  not  long  entered  upon  the 
threshold  of  life,  whom,  after  some  of  the  Scripture 
references  adverted  to,  he  dismissed  with  the  parting 
advice,  "  To  keep  a  smiling  countenance,  and  a  good 
exertion."  The  young  farmer  lived  to  become  an 
old  man,  and  is  now  gathered  to  his  fathers.  But 
for  many  years  I  heard  him  from  time  to  time  revert 
with  pleasure  to  his  visit,  and  say  that  this  simple 
aphorism  had  frequently  cheered  him  in  the  hour  of 
difficulty  ;  and  that  the  thought  of  the  old  man's  con- 
tented countenance  and  encouraging  voice  when  he 
uttered  it,  had  gone  far  to  make  him  place  confidence 
in  his  counsel. 

We  are  all  too  prone  to  brood  over  the  clouds 
upon  our  atmosphere,  and  too  feebly  do  we  keep 
the  eye  of  hope  fixed  on  the  first  sunbeam  which 
breaks  through  as  the  symbol  of  their  dispersion. 
In  reality,  most  of  them  are  merely  passing  clouds. 


264  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

Some  glances  at  a  blacker  picture  still,  will  go  far 
to  clothe  with  brighter  hues  the  less  gloomy  picture 
which  may  happen  to  be  our  own.  Thus,  with  "  a 
smiling  countenance  and  a  good  exertion,"  let  every 
one  of  us,  whether  his  lot  be  cast  with  the  plough, 
the  loom,  or  the  anvil,  put  forth  manfully  his  powers, 
and,  thankful  to  a  gracious  God  for  the  blessings 
yet  spared,  be  it  our  effort  in  our  worldly  duties  to 
follow  the  example  set  us  in  higher  things,  "  forget- 
ting those  things  that  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth 
unto  those  which  are  before,  let  us  press  towards 
the  mark  for  the  prize ; "  and  if  we  thus  demean 
ourselves,  we  shall  not  fail,  in  earthly  any  more 
than  in  spiritual  things,  to  obtain  our  reward. 

All  know  that  one  effect  of  the  rebellion  was  to 
paralyze  nearly  every  kind  of  business,  suddenly 
enriching  the  few,  but  as  suddenly  impoverishing 
the  many.  On  my  quiet  little  plantation  I  was 
entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  its  disastrous  influence. 
It  lost  me  no  money,  because  my  savings  had  been 
loaned  on  mortgage.  It  is  true  that  interest  was 
not  paid  up  as  punctually  as  aforetime,  but  the 
omission  to  pay  occasioned  me  no  distress ;  hence 
I  occasioned  none  by  compulsory  collection.  The 
summer  of  1861,  however,  did  reduce  prices  of  most 
of  my  productions.  The  masses  had  less  money  to 
spend,  and  therefore  consumed  less.  Yet  my  early 
consignments  of  blackberries  sold  for  twenty-five 
cents  a  quart,  and  the  whole  crop  averaged  four- 
teen. My  strawberries  yielded  abundantly,  escap- 
ing the  frost  which  nipped  the  first  bloom  of  all 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  265 

other  growers,  no  doubt  protected  by  the  well- 
grown  peach  trees,  and  netted  me  sixteen  cents. 
Raspberries  bore  generously,  and  netted  quite  as 
much ;  while  peaches,  though  few  in  number, 
brought  the  highest  prices.  The  total  income  that 
year  was  certainly  less  than  usual,  by  several  hun- 
dred dollars — but  what  of  that?  It  was  double 
what  I  needed  to  support  my  family.  Thus,  no 
national  disaster,  no  matter  how  tremendous,  seems 
able  to  impoverish  the  farmer  who  is  free  from 
debt.  Nothing  short  of  the  tramp  of  hostile  armies 
over  his  green  fields  can  impoverish  such  a  man. 


266  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

WHERE    TO    LOCATE EAST    OE   WEST. 

Every  great  national  calamity  has  the  effect  of 
driving  men  from  the  cities  to  engage  in  agricult- 
ure. Such  has  been  the  result  of  the  late  war  for 
the  Union.  I  have  been  in  a  position  to  observe  its 
operation  on  the  minds  of  hundreds  whom  it  cov- 
ered with  disaster.  There  has  been  the  usual  desire 
to  break  away  from  the  cities,  and  settle  in  the 
country.  The  life-long  convictions  of  my  own 
mind  have  taken  possession  of  the  minds  of  others. 
Property  in  the  cities  ceased,  for  a  time,  to  be 
saleable,  while  farms  have  been  in  more  general 
demand  than  for  years  past.  Foreign  immigration 
was  measurably  stopped,  because  men  fly  from  con- 
vulsions, not  to  countries  where  they  are  to  be 
encountered.  When  war  desolates  the  nations  of 
Europe,  the  people  migrate  hither  to  avoid  its  hor- 
rors ;  when  it  desolates  ours,  they  remain  at  home- 

During  the  late  disastrous  experiences  of  city 
life,  many  of  my  friends  upon  whom  they  fell  with 
great  severity  were  free  in  their  congratulations  on 
my  happy  change  of  life.  They  had  been  as  free  in 
doubting  the  propriety  of  my  experiment.  Now, 
however,  they  looked  up  to  me  as  possessing  supe- 
rior sagacity ;  were  desirous  themselves  of  imitat- 
ing my  example,  and  sought  instruction  and  advice 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  267 

as  to  how  they  should  proceed.  Three  of  them  are 
already  located  near  me ;  so  that,  instead  of  cutting 
entirely  loose  from  old  asssociates  by  coming  into 
the  country,  I  have  attracted  them  into  a  closer 
intimacy  than  ever.  Dear  as  my  home  was  without 
them,  it  is  rendered  doubly  dearer  by  close  asso- 
ciation with  long- tried  friends. 

Location  is  perhaps  the  most  important  consider- 
ation. A  cash  market  all  the  year  round  for  every 
variety  of  produce  that  a  man  can  raise,  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  secure.  Such  is  invariably  to 
be  found  in  close  proximity  to  the  great  cities  ;  and 
there,  singularly  enough,  the  wealthiest  farmers  in 
the  Union  will  generally  be  found.  When  we  go 
to  the  extreme  North,  where  their  market  is  limiti- 
ed,  and  where  they  produce  only  the  heavy  grains, 
and  grasses,  farming  is  so  little  an  object  that 
improved  places  can  always  be  bought  for  less  than 
their  cost.  It  is  very  frequently  the  same  through- 
out the  West,  where  so  much  that  is  raised  upon  a 
farm  is  valueless ;  and  where,  for  even  the  grains, 
they  have  a  market  which  barely  pays  the  expense 
of  living.  The  expense  incurred  in  farming  can  be 
regulated  by  the  profit  of  the  crops ;  and  where 
even  no  manure  is  required,  the  labor  has  to  be 
expended,  and  crops  in  distant  localities  often  fail 
to  pay  the  expense  of  this  labor.  Where  land  will 
pay  for  a  liberal  cultivation,  as  well  as  fertilizing,  it 
is  much  better,  as  a  farmer  must  work  his  stock, 
and  a  certain  amount  of  care  is  indispensable.  The 
difference  in  value  existing  between  those  farms 


268  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

near  a  market  and  those  remote  from  it,  is  enor- 
mous. If  the  mind  will  consider  the  immense 
amount  of  produce  in  the  way  of  fruits  and  vegeta- 
bles, which,  near  a  city,  will  command  the  highest 
prices,  and  which  at  a  distance  are  an  entire  loss, 
a  conception  can  be  readily  formed  of  what  they 
amount  to  in  dollars  and  cents. 

Land  in  Illinois  and  Iowa  can  be  purchased  for  a 
dollar  an  acre,  but  corn  is  at  times  of  so  little  value 
as  to  be  consumed  for  fuel.  The  wheat  crop  is 
annually  decreasing  in  its  acreable  product,  because 
no  one  values  or  applies  manure.  The  West  may  be 
the  paradise  of  the  European  immigrant,  who,  hav- 
ing abandoned  friends  and  home,  may  with  propri- 
ety settle  in  one  spot  as  well  as  in  another ;  because, 
go  where  he  will,  he  will  be  sure  to  find  none  but 
strangers.  But  for  residents  of  our  cities  who  go 
thither,  very  few  acquire  property  by  legitimate 
farming,  even  after  sacrificing  all  the  tender  associ- 
ations of  relatives  and  friends  whom  they  leave 
behind,  and  enduring  hardships  and  trials  of  double 
severity  with  those  they  need  encounter  if  they 
would  consent  to  suffer  them  on  lands  within  thirty 
miles  of  their  birthplace.  If  they  become  rich,  it  is 
by  hazardous  speculation,  or  by  the  rise  in  value  of 
their  lands.  So  far  as  real,  practical  farming  is 
concerned,  it  will  be  found  that  the  East  is  incom- 
parably superior  to  the  West ;  but,  so  far  as  small 
farmers  like  myself  are  concerned,  it  would  be  folly 
to  deny  this  superiority. 

I  say  nothing  as  to  the  superior  ease  with  which 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  269 

com  and  wheat  are  produced  in  the  two  sections, 
but  refer  only  to  the  amount  of  money  that  can  be 
realized  from  an  acre  there  and  an  acre  here.  Be- 
yond question,  there  are  certain  crops  that  are  pro- 
duced with  greater  ease  in  the  West  than  in  the 
East ;  but  of  what  value  is  this  superior  facility  if 
it  does  not  pay  ?  I  have  cleared  from  a  single  acre 
of  tomatoes  more  than  enough  to  buy  a  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  in  Iowa.  If  I  had  located  there, 
who  would  have  been  ready  to  buy  my  abundant 
crop  of  berries  ?  The  truth  is,  that  it  is  population 
that  gives  value  to  land, — population  either  on  it  or 
around  it, — to  convert  it  into  lots  covered  with 
buildings,  or  to  consume  whatever  it  may  produce. 
The  West  is  a  glorious  region  for  the  foreign  immi- 
grant, or  for  him  who  was  born  upon  the  rugged 
hill-sides  of  the  Eastern  States,  but  it  is  not  the 
proper  location  for  the  class  for  whose  instruction 
these  pages  have  been  written. 

Few  persons  who  have  been  nurtured  and  edu- 
cated all  their  days  in  Eastern  cities,  and  who  have 
probably  never  been  more  than  fifty  miles  from 
home,  have  any  correct  idea  of  what  this  gigantic 
West  really  is  until  they  reach  the  spot  itself.  Why 
leave  the  privileges  of  a  long-established  civilization, 
— the  schools,  the  churches  of  home, — the  daily  in- 
tercourse of  acquaintances  and  friends, — merely  be- 
cause land  producing  twenty  bushels  of  wheat  per 
acre  can  be  purchased  for  a  dollar,  when  that  pro- 
ducing twenty  times  as  much  in  fruit  or  vegetables 
can  be  had  for  fifty,  and  often  even  for  less?    I 


270  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

doubt  not  there  must  be  manj'^  in  that  region  who 
now  wish  themselves  back  in  their  old  homes. 

If  my  example  be  worth  imitating,  land  should  be 
obtained  within  cheap  and  daily  access  to  any  one  of 
the  great  cities.  If  within  reach  of  two,  as  mine  is, 
all  the  better,  as  the  location  thus  secures  the  choice 
of  two  markets.  In  Pennsylvania,  all  the  land 
around  Philadelphia  is  held  at  high  prices.  Much  of 
it  is  divided  into  small  holdings,  many  of  which  are 
rented  to  market  gardeners  at  prices  so  high  that 
none  but  market  gardeners  can  afford  to  pay  them. 
Others  are  worked  by  their  owners,  who  live  well  by 
feeding  the  great  city.  Gradually,  as  the  city  ex- 
tends in  every  direction,  these  small  holdings  are 
given  up  to  streets  and  buildings,  thus  enriching 
their  owners  by  the  rise  in  value.  The  truckers 
move  further  back,  where  land  is  cheaper.  But  the 
modern  facilities  for  reaching  the  city  by  railroad 
have  so  greatly  multiplied,  that  they  are  practically 
as  near  to  it  as  they  were  before.  The  yield  from 
some  of  these  small  holdings  is  very  large.  But  the 
cost  of  land  thus  situated  was  too  great  for  my  slen- 
der capital  when  I  began. 

Hence  I  sought  a  location  in  New  Jersey.  There 
unimproved  land,  within  an  hour  of  Philadelphia, 
can  be  purchased  for  the  same  money  per  acre  which 
is  paid  in  Peimsylvania  as  annual  rent.  For  ten  to 
twenty  dollars  more,  in  clearing  up  and  improving, 
it  can  be  made  immediately  productive,  as  the  soil 
of  even  this  cheap  land  is  far  more  fertile  than  is 
generally  supposed.    Thousands  of  acres  of  this 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  271 

description  are  always  for  sale,  and  thousands  are 
annually  being  bought  and  improved,  as  railroads 
and  turnpikes  leading  to  the  city  are  being  estab- 
lished. Many  Germans  have  abandoned  the  West, 
and  opened  farms  on  this  cheap  and  admirably  lo- 
cated land,  from  which  they  raise  prodigious  quanti- 
ties of  fruit  and  truck  for  Philadelphia  and  New 
York. 

Colonies  of  New  Englanders,  allured  by  the  early 
season,  as  compared  with  that  of  their  own  homes, 
the  productive  soil  and  the  ready  access  to  market, 
have  settled  upon  and  around  the  new  railroad  just 
opened,  which  leads  south  from  Camden  through  the 
town  of  Malaga,  where  a  large  tract  has  recently  been 
divided  into  farms  of  various  sizes.  They  bring  with 
them  all  the  surroundings  of  an  advanced  civilization. 

To  those  with  no  capital  but  their  own  labor  and 
a  determination  to  conquer  success,  these  lands  offer 
the  highest  inducements.  Most  of  them  can  be  had 
on  credit,  by  men  who  will  settle  and  improve,  at 
twenty  to  thirty  dollars  per  acre,  vrithin  a  little  over 
an  hour's  ride  to  Philadelphia.  This  tract  is  distant 
but  a  few  miles  from  the  Delaware  river,  and  proba- 
bly no  better  could  be  found.  Any  number  of  loca- 
tions can  be  had.  Many  are  already  improved  by 
buildings,  fencing,  and  all  the  preliminary  comforts 
which  cluster  round  an  established  home.  The  set- 
tler may  choose  between  the  improved  and  the  un- 
improved. 

But  there  is  a  better  country  north  of  Camden, 
lining  the  shore  of  the  Delaware,  where  any  number 


272  TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH. 

of  locations  may  be  found,  improved  by  buildings, 
and  at  moderate  prices,  as  well  as  on  favorable  terms 
as  to  payment.  Vast  progress  in  improvement  has 
been  made  through  all  this  region  within  ten  years. 
New  towns  have  been  built,  new  turnpikes  construct- 
ed, while  the  great  railroad  puts  the  cultivator  in 
constant  connection  with  the  two  overgrown  cities 
at  its  termini.  Land  is  increasing  in  value  as  popu- 
lation flows  in.  The  margin  of  the  Delaware,  from 
Philadelphia  upward,  is  being  lined  with  villages, 
between  which  new  farm-houses  and  cottages  are 
annually  erected ;  and  the  young  of  this  generation 
will  live  to  see  it  a  continuous  settlement  of  substan- 
tial villas,  peopled  by  the  swarms  of  educated 
families  which  a  great  human  hive  like  Philadelphia 
is  annually  throwing  off.  A  location  within  such 
an  atmosphere  of  improvement  must  continually  in- 
crease in  value.  The  owner  will  find  himself  grow- 
ing richer  from  this  cause,  just  as  the  trucker  on  the 
Pennsylvania  side  has  done — not  so  rapidly,  but 
quite  as  surely.  An  investment  in  such  land,  prop- 
erly managed,  and  not  permitted  to  deteriorate, 
will  assuredly  pay.  My  own  little  farm  is  an  illus- 
tration ;  for  more  than  once  have  I  been  solicited  to 
sell  at  double  the  price  it  cost  me. 

I  am  now  looking  at  the  future,  as  well  as  at  the 
present.  Yet  the  apparent  anomaly  of  there  being 
always  an  abundance  of  land  for  sale  in  so  desirable 
a  district,  must  not  be  overlooked.  But  it  is  so 
throughout  our  country ;  there  are  always  and  every- 
where more  sellers  than  buyers.     It  is  the  same  thing 


TEN  ACRES  ENOUGH.  273 

in  the  cities ;  everywhere  there  is  somebody  anxious 
to  sell.  It  would  seem  that  we  either  have  too  much 
land  in  this  country,  or  too  small  a  population. 
Time  alone  can  produce  the  proper  equilibrium.  The 
land  cannot  be  increased  in  quantity,  but  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  population  will  be.  As  this  is  not  a 
treatise  either  upon  land  or  farming,  but  the  ex- 
perience of  a  single  individual,  so  each  claimant  for 
a  similar  experience  must  choose  for  himself. 

But  choose  as  he  may,  locate  as  he  will,  he  must 
not,  as  he  hopes  to  succeed  in  growing  the  smaller 
fruits  to  profit,  locate  himself  out  of  reach  of  a  daily 
cash  market.  New  York  and  Philadelphia  may  be 
likened  to  two  huge  bags  of  gold,  always  filled,  and 
ever  standing  open  for  him  to  thrust  in  his  hand, 
provided  in  the  other  he  brings  something  to  eat. 
From  this  exhaustless  fountain  of  wealth,  whole  ad- 
jacent populations  have  become  rich.  The  appetite 
of  the  cities  for  horticultural  luxuries  has  revolution- 
ized the  neighboring  agriculture,  enhanced  the  value 
of  thousands  of  acres,  infused  a  higher  spirit  into 
cultivators,  elevated  fruit-growing  into  a  science, 
and  started  competition  in  a  long  rivalry  after  the 
best  of  everything  that  the  earth  can  be  made  to 
yield.  All  this  is  no  spasmodic  movement.  It  will 
go  on  for  all  future  time ;  but  in  this  grand  and 
humanizing  march  after  perfection  in  producing  food 
for  man,  the  careful  tiller  of  the  soil,  with  moderate 
views  and  thankful  heart,  will  be  sure  to  find  Ten 
Acres  Enough. 

THE   END. 

ig 


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